Dimension Gate
by Genis Irving
Summary: A story that takes place throughout many dimensions, as one boy escapes his misery in one world only to discover himself travelling through the alternate realities that exist, meeting and remeeting his friends and himself. Contains many, many, many sourc
1. Fallen Child, Bloodlines

Chapter 1: Fallen Child  
  
::The First Bloodlines Chapter::  
  
"MEK AI!!!"  
Garlyle shouted hopelessly, as he watched his brother fall, almost in slow motion, a crimson splash shooting out from the gash in his arm. The young blue-haired child landed hard on the stone flooring.  
Mek Ai looked up hopelessly at his older brother. "Garlyle. I'm. sorry." Mek Ai begged. "I'm sorry. that I couldn't be more help."  
Garlyle crouched down beside his brother, lifting up his head and cuddling it against his chest, gently. "Brother." he muttered between tears. "Brother, you did fine."  
"No, I failed you." Mek Ai shook his head weakly, looking sadly up at his brother. "And this is my punishment."  
"No! No!" Garlyle cried out, staring into Mek Ai's eyes. "You did your best. I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you. I forgive you, just please, don't leave me!"  
Mek Ai's eyes were tearing up. "Thank you. but."  
"No!"  
"Perhaps life just. wasn't meant. for me."  
"Don't say that! Please." Garlyle's eyes were blurring up with his tears, oblivious to the shadow that was moving closer towards him. "Mek! Mek!" he cried out despairingly.  
His brother's eyes closed, and his breathing stopped.  
He was gone.  
"Mek! NO!" Garlyle cried out, hugging his lifeless brother next to him. He felt his body become cold.  
"This. this isn't. this shouldn't have happened." Garlyle looked up, and stared at the tall man with the black cape who stood above him, the long black rose-hilted sword in his hands. "Jetsu. why?"  
"I promised I'd exterminate your line. I promised my father that on his deathbed" Jetsu smiled darkly. "Now, I will complete what I set out to do!"  
Jetsu's sword raised up a bit, before it sliced down into Garlyle's shoulder.  
A moment later, Garlyle's lifeless body hit the ground, his arm severed off.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Garlyle shouted, suddenly collapsing to his knees. Taka grabbed onto him, to keep him from falling any further.  
"Garlyle! Garlyle! What's wrong?"  
Garlyle seemed shaken. It had felt, if only for a moment, that part of his soul had been torn from him. For a moment, his eyes went blank, and he saw, heard, and felt nothing.  
Then the heat returned to his body, and Taka felt halfway reassured.  
Garlyle looked up at Taka for a moment, a tear in his eye. "What. what happened?" Taka asked.  
"It felt. like reality tore for a moment. I felt like I was dying." Garlyle reached up and felt at his shoulder. The pain had come from there. The arm was still working all right. So what had happened?  
"Brother?" Mek Ai looked up at him. "Did you feel it too?"  
"Y. Yes." Garlyle nodded, remembering how his brother had seemed blank and lifeless for a moment, only a few moments later.  
Jael, the tall, dark-haired man beside them, shrugged. "I don't know what's going on, so don't ask me."  
Mek Ai, the young blue-haired child, laughed nervously. "It. was probably nothing." he let out a small cough.  
"Are you sure you're okay?" Garlyle asked, under his brown hair and black bandana, his chestnut eyes shimmering. "I don't want anything bad to happen."  
"I'm sure it's nothing" Taka, the purple-haired child no older then Garlyle, shrugged, although his face betrayed his true feelings, he was somewhat worried.  
"You should never be sure anything is nothing" Garlyle responded. "Haven't I taught you otherwise?"  
Taka bowed nervously. "I'm sorry. I had. forgotten."  
"Very well." Garlyle shrugged. "If you'll excuse me, I have a job to attend to" he stood up and walked towards the door of the small street-side house.  
"Without me?" Taka asked, his eyebrow raising.  
"Nothing that would interest you, I assure you" Garlyle responded.  
Before Taka could respond, Garlyle was out the door and onto the crowded streets of Avel. People of all kinds of backgrounds and colors walked the streets, smiling only to greet a friend who they might run into. A few stalls selling random goods dotted the corners of the dirty streets. As Garlyle walked by a group of teens, a fight broke out. Daggers were drawn and punches were thrown, but Garlyle didn't care.  
He didn't need more enemies.  
One thing, however, did catch Garlyle's attention. A young man with flamboyant red hair was shouting over the crowd. "I tell you all! But you do not believe! Many dimensions exist! We exist in many other worlds, each of us there different! And I know how to travel between them!"  
Halfway amused, Garlyle walked over to the man and looked at him, in his purple jester-style clothing. Was this guy serious?  
The man laughed. "Have I caught your eye as somebody who thinks I am speaking of reality? Or am I just another madman in your eyes."  
"I do not judge until I have reason to" Garlyle responded.  
"I didn't think you'd gone anywhere!" Taka grabbed onto Garlyle's shoulder. Mek Ai was with him, and Jael loomed over the three. "Who's this nutbar?"  
"Those who do not believe in my power will disrupt it, I must ask you all to leave!" the man cried out.  
"First you must tell us what your power is" Garlyle nodded. "If your claims are with any truth, I will know."  
"Very well" the man smiled and laughed. "Please, come inside." he indicated the small house behind him.  
"Do you trust this man?" Taka asked.  
"No, but this is more interesting then simply wandering the streets" Garlyle shrugged. Jael sighed, and turned to walk away, with Mek Ai and Taka following him.  
"We'll wait outside" Jael offered, as Garlyle stepped inside with the man.  
"It is nice to see a believer in inter-dimensional travel." the man smiled. "Garlyle Wilds, am I correct?"  
"How did you know?" Garlyle asked, going onto his guard.  
"And how is Ceres today?"  
Garlyle nearly fainted. "How. how do you know."  
The strange man interrupted. "Oh, I know all about you and your demonic dragon. I'm sorry to have startled you. My name is Syiolen."  
"How do you know.?"  
"I can see and hear all, I can read minds and see people's innermost desires, hopes, and fears" Syiolen smiled. "And some of those fears will come to pass today. In another dimension, two fears of yours have come to pass."  
"What do you mean.?" Garlyle asked.  
"Did you feel the tearing at your soul only a short while ago?" Syiolen asked.  
"How did you.?"  
"It is still on your mind. I can see straight into the lost soul of another you."  
"What?"  
Syiolen sat down on a large purple cushion. "I'm sorry, perhaps you misunderstand me, and perhaps I am not understanding myself," he laughed out loud. "Allow me to explain."  
"You see, there are several 'Garlyle Wilds' throughout the many many dimensions" Syiolen explained. "Earlier today, one of them died. You, despite being impossibly far away, still felt the connection. You felt the sting of an alternate you dying."  
"What.?" Garlyle's eyes spun.  
"The same happened with your brother. In another dimension, you and your brother were killed, one after another" Syiolen explained, then he suddenly seemed tired. "I'm sorry. I must be scaring you."  
That was an understatement. Garlyle gulped. "But. my fears? Today? Here?"  
"That is correct" Syiolen explained. "Death hangs over your head." he pointed one slightly twisted finger at Garlyle. "Death stalks you and those you associate with. And now it comes closer."  
Garlyle gulped, turned, and ran.  
"You cannot run from Death, boy!" Syiolen shouted out after him.  
Jael, Taka, and Mek Ai took off after Garlyle, as he burst past them.  
Then Garlyle stopped, and looked tearfully back at them, his eyes blank with fear and worry.  
"Garlyle?" his younger brother Mek asked, his golden eyes curious. "Garlyle, what's wrong?"  
Garlyle didn't respond. He was too scared to respond.  
"Mek Ai. please." Garlyle's eyes teared up. "Please, keep yourself safe today. All of you."  
"What? Why?" Taka asked.  
Garlyle gulped, and looked carefully at each one of him.  
Then he laughed out, trying to mask his fear. "I'm sorry. I'm thinking nonsense again."  
Taka knew when Garlyle was trying to cover himself up. "Something has you spooked, Garlyle. What is it?"  
"N. Nothing!" Garlyle shook his head.  
"I doubt that so incredibly much," Taka responded, smirking. "What is going on?"  
"Excuse me."  
Everybody faced in on the man with the huge sword draped across his back.  
"What do you want?" Jael asked.  
The man reached up for the sword on his back. Garlyle and Taka automatically had their weapons out, but Jael wasn't fast enough.  
The man's body slumped backwards, the head rolling off into the streets. Panic erupted, as people ran.  
"I have been hired to eliminate your line" the man jeered. "High Priest Rue has demanded your death!"  
Garlyle knew whom he was talking about. Rue. Rue was just that, a high priest. A high priest that wanted the Wilds line dead.  
But that wasn't on Garlyle's mind. The only thing that was. was the startling fear of Jael's sudden death.  
"No!" Mek Ai cried out.  
"Run, Mek!" Garlyle shouted. Mek Ai, on command, took off running towards the crowd.  
"No running, child!" the mercenary, for he obviously was one, laughed. His hands flew to his side, where a long whip was strung up in a loop on his belt. With one crack of the whip in his empty hand, it wrapped around Mek Ai's neck.  
Mek Ai struggled for a moment, gasping for air. But it wouldn't have mattered if he did. The rope was tight and had struck his windpipe with such force that it had been sliced open.  
Mek Ai's body slumped to the ground. As if on command, the tip uncoiled from Mek Ai's throat, wavering back to its correct place.  
Taka and Garlyle took up fighting stances, though they knew it would be hopeless to try and fight this man. This was it.  
Taka looked over at Garlyle. His body glowed a faint purple.  
"You've saved me more times then I've saved you now" Taka whispered. "Allow me to save you one last time. We'll be even. So run, the moment I have him."  
"Taka, no!" Garlyle cried, but Taka had already decided.  
"Devil Deal!" Taka stamped his foot into the ground in front of him. The sword came down towards Taka.  
"BLAST!"  
Taka flipped backwards, tearing himself up, and using up every bit of his energy. A huge blast of magical energy swarmed t Taka flipped backwards, tearing himself up, and using up every bit of his energy. A huge blast of magical energy swarmed towards the mercenary.  
It barely stunned him. But in that moment, full of remorse and sadness, Garlyle took off running, to the only possibly safe place he knew.  
As Garlyle ran into Syiolen's small hut, he was surprised at the whirring blue gate in front of Syiolen.  
"What?" Garlyle looked at the older man.  
"Come, Garlyle!" Syiolen shouted. "Let us leave this dimension!"  
"What!?" Garlyle cried out again. "I. I can't! I can't leave my brother behind!"  
"They're gone!" Syiolen cried out. "You believed in me, now I'm helping you in return! Come!"  
Before Garlyle could protest, a whip struck out and grabbed Syiolen's neck.  
"Go!" Syiolen growled. "Jump through, before I'm gone. and it. is too."  
Knowing it was the only way, Garlyle jumped into the portal. A moment later, as Syiolen collapsed, dead, the portal collapsed with him.  
"He got away." the man growled, as the whip returned to him. "I'll hunt him down." 


	2. Fallen Starlight, Inuyasha

Chapter 2 - Fallen Starlight  
  
::The First Inuyasha Chapter::  
  
Garlyle stretched his fingers. They felt oddly tight and stiff. Like they were missing their magic.  
And as far as Garlyle could tell, they were.  
Garlyle looked around as far as his young eyes could see. Nothing but endless trees up and down the mountainside. Or hillside. He couldn't quite tell which it was.  
Too many trees.  
Garlyle sighed. So, here he was, without any of his magic or anything. Nothing he could do anymore, but try and find some semblance of a civilization. Or something similar to a civilization, anyway.  
And as far as he knew, no such thing existed within several miles. He was in an endless sea of trees.  
Garlyle sighed, as he hopped down from a small ridge, and found himself on a small dirt road. This made him smile somewhat; maybe there was something resembling civilization somewhere.  
"I told you, you have to rest!"  
Garlyle dived off to the side on reflex, hiding himself in the bushes. Who was that speaking?  
Three. no, wait, four figures came into view. The first one was tall, with long white hair and pointed ears, a battle-scarred face and a heavy red kimono, a long sword in a sheath at his side. Blood stained the left side of his outfit, though it was hard to tell. "I'm just fine!" the man cried out.  
"I do believe she's right on this." said the other man there, a tall figure wearing long navy-blue to grayish robes, it was hard to tell which. His short dark hair didn't cover much of his face, and the hand wielding the long staff was wrapped in cloth, though it didn't seem to be wounded.  
"Listen, Moroku, I'll survive! I've had worse then this." the silver- haired man cried out.  
The other two figures were riding a bicycle, a sight that made Garlyle smile slightly, realizing there may yet be civilization. One was riding it, a female in a green skirt and white shirt with a green ribbon, long flowing brown hair and a happy face. In the basket of the bicycle was a short kid with big shining eyes, a puff of brown hair, a dotted shirt and vest, and the same pointed, beast-like ears.  
"Inuyasha, look at you! Your sword arm, you couldn't possibly wield Tetsaiga like this." the girl looked at him worriedly. "What will we do if a demon would attack?"  
"We just single-handedly wiped out every demon in the forest" Inuyasha, the silver-haired man, cried out. "Geez, Kagome, what could possibly attack us now?"  
"Well," the girl turned pouty, crossing her arms in mid-pedal. "I dunno. Maybe. more demons?"  
"You're not being very helpful!" Inuyasha cried out. They reached level on the path with Garlyle.  
Then the young boy in the basket turned his head towards the bushes, and shouted.  
"What is it, Shippo?" Kagome asked.  
"There's somebody in the bushes!" Shippo pointed.  
Garlyle didn't move, but he did hold his breath for a few moments. His brown eyes looked somewhat like chestnuts hanging in the branches.  
Moroku blinked. "Hey! Come on out!" Inuyasha extended his other hand, which was oddly clawed. A monster!? Garlyle froze stiffer.  
Inuyasha moved towards the bushes. "Come out, whoever or whatever you are."  
Garlyle, seeing the hand looming over him, turned in one movement, kicked hard off the ground, and burst out running. His short spiky brown hair trailed out behind him.  
"Excuse me, where are you going?" Inuyasha was after him.  
"Hey, kid, wait up!" there was the sound of the Bicycle being pedaled again.  
A few moments later, Garlyle dived down another ridge, but this one was larger then expected. Dirt disappeared beneath him, and he lost what little footing he had had and tumbled down.  
After hitting solid ground, he rolled a bit more and came to a stop, looking up.  
There was that 'Inuyasha' monster staring back at him.  
Garlyle tried to focus himself, and for a moment seemed blank. Then, he sprang up again with his legs, pushing himself right back up. But before he could take off, he was picked up by the back of his collar.  
"Let me go!" Garlyle cried, reaching up to his neck and grabbing at the string that hung from it. With one strong tug, the chain was off his neck and wrapped around his knuckle in a technique he had long practiced. He held a single, long, white fang in his hand.  
With expertise, he slashed it at Inuyasha's face. But the man was too tall and quick for something like that, he simply pulled backwards.  
"It's just a kid" Inuyasha muttered, as Moroku and Shippo caught up. Kagome abandoned her bike at the top of the road and ran down the slope.  
Garlyle struggled. "What do you want with me?"  
"Were you spying on us?" Inuyasha asked.  
Shippo, though, seemed to have a face of awe. "No. No! Inuyasha, you'd better drop him right now!"  
Inuyasha inspected Garlyle. "Why? This kid's not even a demon!"  
Then Inuyasha pulled back the bangs of hair in front of Garlyle's ears, and saw they were slightly pointed as well. "Oh, so he is."  
"That kid." Shippo gaped. "That kid is Garlyle!"  
"You know me?" Garlyle blinked.  
"Yeah, you know him?" Kagome asked.  
"Everybody does." Shippo was practically gasping. "That's. the son of the Demon Warlord, Aruve!"  
"Well, maybe he's got a jewel fragment" Inuyasha smiled, grabbing at the pocket in Garlyle's black trousers.  
"Hey!" Garlyle struggled. All that fell out was a bit of gold. "Watch it!"  
"." Inuyasha looked at it. "Seems like a bunch of junk to me."  
Then a small, round object fell out of Garlyle's pocket. Inuyasha dropped Garlyle for a moment to bend down and inspect it, picking it up.  
"Hey! Gimme that!" Garlyle jumped up to snatch it, but Inuyasha raised it over his head.  
"Ey, Shippo." Inuyasha flipped it over his shoulder and the child caught it. "Does this mean anything to you?"  
Shippo inspected the small object. "That's. That's him! That's Aruve! The lot of them!"  
"How cute, a family!" Kagome snatched it up. Then she seemed sad. Garlyle didn't inquire, at the moment, he didn't care.  
"Gimme it back!" Garlyle ran over and jumped up, snatching back the picture. Then he himself looked down at it.  
He stared back at himself from within the small painted portrait, although a couple years younger. There, beside him, was his smaller brother. And behind those two, their tall father and stunning mother.  
Garlyle tucked it back into his pocket, and moved to take off running. The monk's staff came down in front of him.  
"Now hold it, where do you think you're going?" Moroku asked.  
"If he's the son of a demon warlord, maybe we should find this guy" Inuyasha smirked.  
"A warlord? In your state?" Kagome gasped. "Inuyasha, what is wrong with you?"  
"I assure you, Kagome, I'm fine" Inuyasha responded. "So just shut up about it!"  
Kagome stuck out her tongue. "Well, fine then!" she knelt down beside Garlyle. "So. where's your dad?"  
Garlyle considered the facts. "My dad's no demon warlord. You must have the wrong."  
"You see, there are several 'Garlyle Wilds' throughout the many many dimensions"  
Garlyle's mind remembered the one phrase. "Then. in this world, I must be a." Garlyle's eyes swirled. "Woah, so then I am a demon here."  
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Inuyasha demanded.  
"You. have me confused with a different. Garlyle." Garlyle sighed. "It's a long story, but basically, I'm the Garlyle from another world. I'm not really the son of a demon warlord, at least, in my world, I'm not, and."  
"In your world?" Kagome picked up Garlyle like he was some cuddly toy. "Oh, you poor thing, I know just how you feel."  
"What.?" Garlyle blinked, blushing lightly. What would Kiana do to him if she saw him like this?  
"Set him down, he's probably still very dangerous" Moroku rested his hands on Kagome's arm.  
"Hey! Hands off!" Inuyasha snapped at Moroku.  
Gently, Kagome put Garlyle back on the ground. She had asked him something, but Garlyle's mind was still reeling with possibility.  
If in this dimension, he was the son of a demon warlord. what if his family was alive in this dimension? And his friends, too?  
"Well, what should we do with him?" Kagome asked.  
"This is a puzzler" Inuyasha plopped himself down on the ground, cross-legged. "What do you suppose, Moroku?"  
"I suppose that we take him back home. Besides, you wanna meet this Demon Warlord, right?"  
"Yeah, this Aruve guy."  
Garlyle hid his smile at this. Aruve was his father's name.  
"Where do you live? Do you know where your father rules?" Moroku asked.  
Garlyle shrugged. "I don't exactly know where anything is around here."  
"Well, then, travel with us for a while" Kagome smiled. "Maybe. maybe we'll be able to find some help for you."  
"Maybe." Garlyle smiled. He wouldn't mind finding his family somewhere around here.  
And so Garlyle joined up, temporarily, with Inuyasha and his friends. 


	3. Demon Heir, Inuyasha

Chapter 3 - Demon Heir  
  
::The Second Inuyasha Chapter::  
  
"Well, we're here"  
"Wow." Kagome gaped. "This place is a palace!"  
"Only fitting for a warlord" Moroku agreed. "Seems awfully bright and extravagant for a demon."  
Inuyasha inspected the ivory doors with the dragons carved along the sides. "I bet you anything he wasn't the one who designed it."  
"The dragon." Garlyle ran up and looked at the carving along the side. "Incredible! Just like."  
"Wait, first, Kagome." Inuyasha turned to the girl. "Are there any shards of the Jewel here?"  
Kagome closed her eyes. A moment later, she popped them back open. "Y. Yeah, there's one."  
"Well, then, it's settled" Inuyasha walked up to the middle of the doors and put his hand on them, giving them a push.  
Instead of the door opening, the dragons along the side seemed to twitch. A moment later, the long brown dragons were snaking out of the wood. Everybody backed up a bit, and Shippo ran to hide back in Kagome's bike. Garlyle hid himself quickly behind Inuyasha.  
"What business do you have here?" one of the twin dragons demanded in a horse voice.  
"We're here for the Shikon Jewel fragment!" Inuyasha cried out.  
"Why are you after the master's fragment?" the other dragon demanded.  
"It's none of your business" Inuyasha shouted.  
"Wrong answer" they both chimed in at the same time, before shooting towards Inuyasha. Inuyasha dived, revealing Garlyle.  
"Gaah!" Garlyle shouted, bracing himself for impact.  
The dragons froze in mid-air. "Garlyle? Is that you?"  
"Y. Yeah" Garlyle nodded quickly. "It is me."  
"Why did you hide? Your father has missed you" one demanded.  
"I. I'm sorry" Garlyle shook his head.  
"You look unlike yourself. Are you sure you are Garlyle?" the other demanded.  
"Yes, yes I am" Garlyle nodded.  
"Then what is the name of our leader?" the dragon demanded.  
"Human or dragon?" Garlyle asked curiously, raising his eyebrow.  
The two dragons exchanged half a glance. "Dragon."  
"Ceres" Garlyle responded.  
"Welcome home, sir Garlyle" the two dragons slid back into the wood, and the two large doors swung open.  
Inside was a large courtyard. A tall beautiful fountain, carved in the shape of a dragon, was the focus of it, though long green vines and beautiful gardens of roses adorned the perimeter. Kagome smiled happily.  
"It's so pretty here." she gaped.  
"This cannot truly be the home of a demon." Moroku wondered.  
". This can't be the right place." Shippo had come back. "I was always told it was dark and scary and."  
"Oh, the inside is, believe me" a tall woman stepped out of the bushes to the side. Her hair was pure white, just like that of Inuyasha, and it flowed freely down her back. She was dressed in a beautifully adorned pink kimono. Her eyes shone a beautiful blue, and she looked perfectly human, except for the pointed, sharp ears. As Garlyle had discovered, this was the mark of a demon. She really didn't look all that different from Inuyasha.  
"And how exactly did you get in here?" she put her hands on her hip, inspecting the group. She stiffened a bit on sight of Inuyasha and Shippo. "Demons too? I thought the dragons would have kept all the intruders out!"  
"Well." Garlyle began, but was stopped instantly as the gaze of the woman fell upon him.  
"Garlyle!? It's you!" she ran over, happily, and picked him up from under his arms. Garlyle was surprised at how strong she was. She hugged him tight, then put him back down. "What are you doing back here so early? Your father and your brother. and their men. there's been no word of them!"  
"Umm." Garlyle shook his head. Okay, Garlyle, think fast, he thought to himself. Better come up with something quick.  
"I'm not sure what happened." Garlyle shook his head. "I can't remember much, mother."  
"Amnesia?" Garlyle's mother gaped. "Oh, you poor dear, let's get you inside. I might have a spell to help you!"  
Before Garlyle or anybody else could protest, she was walking away.  
"Just like in the locket." Kagome muttered. "She's beautiful."  
"Oh, and do invite your friends in" Garlyle's mother called back to him. "It would be rude to keep them waiting."  
"She certainly is a fine specimen" Moroku smiled.  
"What do you mean, in the locket? My mother doesn't really look like." Garlyle took out the locket and flipped it open.  
His insides jumped.  
The picture had changed. It was no longer the family he knew. Instead, there was his mother, at least, in this reality. Garlyle's father, standing towering over him, was a tall figure with black hair that spiked out backwards and something like ceremonial battle dress, a painted white dragon across the front.. Garlyle himself, instead of his normal leather jacket and pants, was clothed in a silver headband, something like blue chain mail, and a pair of rugged black pants. And his younger brother still had his shining blue hair, although it was tied back into a single long ponytail. He was clothed in the same kind of clothing as Garlyle.  
All of them, for what could be seen, had the pointed ears of demons. Even more prominent then the natural slight 'point' that Garlyle's ears had.  
"The picture. it changed." Garlyle muttered. "I. This barely even looks like me."  
"Strange." Kagome muttered. "Just another one of the mysteries of this place."  
Garlyle shuddered to think of what kind of strange magic was affecting him right now. A painting was usually a permanent thing. Back in Avel, there was one magician who could make pictures come to life. but that was it.  
"So that woman's your mother, huh?" Moroku asked.  
"Yes. Her name is Aurora" Garlyle smiled.  
Leaning down, Moroku whispered in Garlyle's ear. "Your mom is hot."  
Garlyle gave Moroku a sharp glare. "Mess with my mother, and so help me god."  
Something in Garlyle's glare caused Moroku to back up. "Okay, whatever. Let's just get the fragment and get out of here" Inuyasha muttered.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Here, have a drink, son." Aurora placed the cup of light tea in front of Garlyle and the others. "And all of you, help yourself." she sat next to Garlyle.  
Quickly, but not very noticeably, Garlyle shifted his head so his chestnut hair would cover his ears. He hopes his mother hadn't noticed yet.  
"This place is quite beautiful, not unlike any of the demons I've known before" Kagome pointed out.  
"Oh, thank you" Aurora smiled. "Deeper in though, Aruve won't let me work my magic. It's very drear and dark."  
Shippo took a light drink of his tea. "Somehow, you don't seem like you're real. I mean, this place." he muttered aloud. "This place looks like something out of a fairy tale. Not the hideout of a demon warlord!"  
"Oh, you fox demons do here a lot" Aurora smiled.  
"How'd you know I was a.?"  
"The tail" Aurora smiled.  
Garlyle nearly spat. He hadn't noticed it before for some reason. Shippo had a bushy tail, just like that of a fox. He had to withhold his urge to shout, or he might give himself away.  
Inuyasha was tensing up; Garlyle could sense it, watching him from across the table. "Something on your mind, Inuyasha?" Moroku asked. Obviously he had sensed it too.  
"I want to see the shard of the Shikon Jewel" Inuyasha demanded.  
"Of course, but finish your tea first" Aurora politely cued in, finishing her cup.  
Inuyasha drank deep. "There, I'm done"  
There was a thud, and Kagome had fallen off of her chair, asleep.  
"What!?" Inuyasha gaped.  
"Oh my." Moroku muttered, his eyelids droopy. He fell over.  
"I don't feel weird" Shippo shrugged.  
"What is this?" Inuyasha demanded, standing up.  
"Oh, it's a special brew" Aurora smiled. "It puts non-demons to sleep. Demons don't feel a single possible effect."  
Garlyle stumbled as he tried to stand up, his eyelids growing heavy. Yet, he still didn't feel totally sleepy. Just slightly tired.  
"What?" Aurora caught his stumble, inspecting him. "Garlyle. are you sure you're okay.?" she brushed back his hair.  
Garlyle braced for impact, as Aurora gasped.  
"You. You're not Garlyle!" she cried out.  
"No, wait!" Garlyle cried out. "I am Garlyle. But just not quite like you think."  
"You had better have a damn good explanation, child!" Aurora suddenly seemed to loom over him.  
"I suppose I have to say it sometime." Garlyle sighed. "Inuyasha, if you would care to move the others out of the room, and yourself with them. Shippo, you go too."  
"Right" Shippo nodded, hoping off his chair, as Inuyasha dragged the others away. Once the room was clear, Garlyle shut the doors, and tried to help her understand the 'dimension theory'. Garlyle thought he heard a door opening at one point, but not seeing any change immediately, passed it off as suspicion.  
"Oh. so. you are my son. kinda." Aurora smiled faintly. "But only slightly."  
"Something like that" Garlyle responded. "I'm just a different version of your son."  
"So, why are you here?" Aurora asked.  
"In my dimension. my family is all dead." Garlyle breathed out. "All my friends. and those who took care of me. I barely escaped."  
"So why come here?" Aurora asked.  
"I. I don't know" Garlyle responded. "I didn't choose where I wanted to go. I just kinda went."  
"Well, we have to find a way to get you back home" Aurora thought. "You can't stay here! You're only human! If the real Garlyle or anybody else came back, you'd be."  
"So dead, that you have no idea"  
Garlyle froze. He had heard his own voice. He spun, and saw that indeed one of the doors had been opened.  
Standing there, watching him with a cruel glare in his eyes, was himself, in the battle armor just like he had been in the painting in the locket.  
"I told you I'd come back, mother" the demon-Garlyle responded, walking past the other Garlyle. "So, who exactly are you, imposter?"  
"I'm you!" Garlyle-other cried out. "Or, something like that."  
"You must be one of the doppelganger demons that escaped!" Garlyle- demon growled, reaching backwards. A blade of energy formed in his hands.  
"Run!" Aurora cried.  
Like a bolt of lightning, Garlyle did one thing he had had lots of practice with. He ran, taking off down the way he had come. Quickly, he slid open the door and ran through. There was no sign of Inuyasha or his friends. They probably had gone to find their jewel.  
As Garlyle turned, he felt a hot blast of energy tear at the ground behind him. He dived for cover, and saw a red inferno shower around the corner he had just come from. A moment later, it died out, and there wasn't even the slightest mark of damage on the walls, as if the fire had not touched it.  
"W. what?" Garlyle wondered aloud, slightly scared. Were the walls enchanted, or were his other self's magic just illusion. Garlyle didn't want to take a risk.  
"Why are you running? You pretty much have his power."  
"Not in this world, I don't!" Garlyle answered back to himself. He shot down the hallway, emerging into the courtyard.  
"Wrong move!" Garlyle gaped, as he came to a screeching halt, to see his father and several humanoid demons standing at the doors, just having entered.  
"Garlyle, why are you out of uniform!?" Aruve demanded.  
Garlyle jumped in his skin. "I."  
"He's not me, father. Destroy him" demon-Garlyle hissed.  
"What? Damn, never thought a doppelganger would get this close to home! Die!" Aruve shouted, moving his hand back. Instead of a sword, snakes of red energy floated around his hand.  
Then he punched forward, palm open. Garlyle dived, as a huge red burst of dragon-shaped energy flew past him. Just as it hit the walls, it disappeared.  
"Dragon magic." Garlyle muttered. "He. Ceres, can you help me?"  
"Why?"  
"Because if you don't, it could cause you real trouble as well!"  
"Very well."  
"I can fight too!" Garlyle shouted, raising his hand forward. The rest came naturally to him, though he had never done it before. "White Dragon Soul!"  
Garlyle gave a punch similar to the way Aruve had done it. Except instead of a red dragon, out shot a burst of shining white energy. Garlyle knew it wouldn't hurt Aruve.  
It surprisingly did. Aruve stumbled back a bit, his clothes dirtied. "Damn! Commander Syiolen! Where are you?"  
One man, probably the tallest of the bunch, stared over at Garlyle. "I. I don't believe it! Don't attack him!"  
Aruve and Demon-Garlyle withheld their attacks. "What?"  
"My other self's experiment worked!" Syiolen laughed.  
"Syiolen!" Mortal-Garlyle cried out, running over. "Am I glad to see you! Send me back home!"  
"I can't do it" Syiolen shook his head. "But you can't stay here. Besides, you need to pass on this success to my other selves!"  
"But why can't I.?"  
"Once you leave a dimension, it's very hard to return to it" Syiolen shook his head. "Maybe if you can find all the others, we can pool our powers to send you back to your world."  
"It makes no real sense." Garlyle admitted, "But. I guess I don't really have any other choice. Any clues on where I'm going next?"  
"If you can get him out of here," Aruve called over to Syiolen, "Do it. I command you. I will not have an imposter in my palace!"  
"Oh dear." Syiolen sighed. "Very well. I'm sorry, but I have to send you away right away."  
"Alright." Garlyle nodded. "Perhaps somewhere else I will be better off then here."  
Syiolen smiled. "Very well. Garlyle, you may not like where I'm about to send you."  
"Why? I will not have Rue chasing after me there, will I?"  
"Perhaps Rue is minor compared to other threats." Syiolen responded, before slamming his hand onto Garlyle's chest.  
Garlyle felt a strange energy, just like he had when he had entered the portal. Then, everything hazed out of view. 


	4. Joanna's Discovery, Perfect Dark

Chapter 4 - Joanna's Discovery  
  
::The First Perfect Dark Chapter::  
  
"No time for that now, Agent Dark. There's been a development during radio silence. The craft carrying those 'friends' I was talking about was shot down over Nevada. The weapon responsible was fired from Area 51. That's where the survivors and debris will have been taken. You're to prep for immediate dispatch when you return. Carrington out."  
"Area 51? But what about the president?" Joanna muttered, shaking her head, as the transmission went dead. She was a fairly-sized woman, with short brown hair to an almost masculine extent, and a black agent suit which was getting fairly soaked in the rain.  
Of course, at the moment, she didn't expect any of what would happen when she did get to Area 51.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Garlyle woke up suddenly, shouting out, and looking around. The walls of this place were white, covered in sheets of metal, with strange glass screens with unusual pictures behind them.  
"Huh.?" Garlyle wondered, looking around and standing up. There were no doors or anything, as if he had been caged. Quickly, he moved to the walls and began inspecting them, running his hands over them.  
It didn't take long for Garlyle's hopes to drain away. There was no weakness whatsoever in any of these walls. And his magic wasn't working the way he wanted it to.  
Garlyle sat down, and caught his reflection in one of the strange screens. His normally tidy, spiky brown hair had begun to tangle, and the black bandana was nearly invisible under the bangs that were lengthening surprisingly fast. His short, 3-4 foot tall body looked tired and shaken, dirt beginning to patch up on his leather jacket over his black shirt, and his long leather breeches were beginning to tear at the bottom. He sighed, closing his chestnut eyes and lying back.  
Then concentrating. "Ceres, what can you tell me. about this place?"  
"I can't really tell you anything, Garlyle. Nothing in here is natural. This is a strange world we have come to."  
"Indeed" Garlyle walked over to one of the screens. "Hey, what do you think this is?" he tapped his knuckles on the screen. It didn't quite feel like glass. This bothered Garlyle somewhat. "What kind of place are we in?"  
Then Garlyle heard something faint. "Affirmative."  
So there was somebody, somewhere! Immediately, Garlyle ran over to the closest wall to where he had heard the sound from, and started pounding it. It hurt his knuckles, even through his gloves. "Hey! Hey! Help!" he shouted out, at the top of his lungs. "If you can hear me, help me!"  
A moment later, he heard footsteps approaching the same wall. "Who? Is there somebody in there?"  
"Help! Get me out of here!" I cried out.  
"Who are you? Where are you?"  
"I'm. I'm a child. I don't know where I am, this place is so strange. help me!"  
"Listen, hold on. I'll see if I can help you. Get back against the opposite wall" Garlyle knew now, since the other voice was speaking up, that it must be a female. That was reassuring, in the least.  
There was a strange sound, and then a couple moments later, a blast rocked the wall, blowing it open. Garlyle raised his arms to shield his face, as stones pelted him.  
"What the.?" Garlyle gaped. The hall just outside was no different.  
Then somebody appeared in front of him, as the air rippled. "So you weren't lying." the woman smiled, her blue eyes shining. "Who are you exactly?" she was wearing a long white shirt with brown stripes, and similarly colored pants. Probably a uniform of some sort.  
"I'm Garlyle Wilds. from. oh, never mind. Please, help me get out of here."  
"When did you get here? What's the last thing you remember?" she demanded.  
"I don't remember anything. I have no idea what this place even could possibly be."  
"You're in Area 51" the woman said. "And I'm Joanna. Here, take this" she pulled a device off her belt and handed it to Garlyle.  
Garlyle took it, inspecting it. "What is this thing?"  
"It's a cloaking device. Just press the button when you want to start it and stop it. As long as you're quiet, you won't be detected" she told him.  
"Button?" Garlyle blinked, looking at it. "Oh, this one." he smiled. "Thank you, but why.?"  
"I don't need it. Besides, you might be able to help me more" Joanna smiled. "I'll tell you what. You help me get my friend, and I'll help get you out of here and to safety."  
"Thank you" Garlyle smiled. "Let's go."  
"Intruder alert!" a male voice cried out.  
"Oh, shut up!" Joanna turned towards the source, and drew something else off her belt; it was a long metal tube with a handle and a small trigger inside. When she pulled it, there was a small sound. A moan of pain, and then a body hitting the floor followed it.  
"What kind of magic.?" Garlyle asked.  
"Magic? Haven't you ever seen a gun before?" she asked. Garlyle shook his head.  
"Well, listen, you'll be cloaked, so it doesn't matter. Do me a favor. Go through that passage" she pointed to a sloped metal plate. "If you see anybody in there, anybody at all, sneak up behind them and knock them out. Or something. Just be careful of their guns!"  
Garlyle looked at Joanna's 'gun', as she had called it. "Alright" he nodded. He walked up to the plate, and amazingly, it slid upwards, making easy passage for him to walk through.  
Inside, on a long metal floor, and covered by the same white metal through and through, were several of those strange glass screens again, as well as walls of wood which separated these screens. A couple men with extremely elongated guns were walking around. One turned his head when he saw the door open by itself, and pulled up his gun.  
"I think there's somebody out there" the man called over to his companion, who was fast asleep.  
The man didn't reply. The first guard walked over slowly, his footsteps echoing.  
Carefully, with practice Garlyle had honed over his couple years of thievery, he tiptoed along the floor, not making a sound in his leather boots. Then, he was behind the guard.  
To an outsider watching, the guard was suddenly struggling, choking, and flailing about, his gun dropping to the floor. A minute or so later, his body slowly was set down as if guided by somebody, to make no sound. Surprisingly, this was true, as Garlyle had done all of it. Carefully, he picked up the man's gun, and found that it disappeared under this 'cloaking device's' effects.  
Garlyle smiled grimly. Before the sleeping man could protest, Garlyle reached down the front of his shirt, brought out the small fang he had used before, and slashed open the guard's throat with the trained efficiency of a killer.  
Garlyle turned back to the entrance, pushing the bodies around a corner. He ran back, and the panel slid open again. "Jo? Joanna?" Garlyle looked around.  
Joanna ran out of a side passage, a strange pair of glasses over her eyes, which she removed. "Garlyle! How'd it go?"  
"Fine. They're dead" Garlyle nodded.  
"Very well. Follow me, but don't make a sound" Joanna moved into the door where Garlyle had gone into. She ran to the end of a hall, and reached a similar panel, although it was split down the middle with a strip of yellow. As she approached, it slid open from the middle, amazing Garlyle to no end. Garlyle quickly caught up to her, standing beside her.  
In the next door in the small passage, there was a glass opening. "So, you got here at last!" a man on the other end smiled.  
"Don't hurt them until I say 'now', okay?" Jo whispered. Garlyle nodded.  
"Everyone's been waiting for you" the man on the other side smiled, and the door slid open.  
Inside was a similarly decorated room. It still seemed very foreign, but somehow, with the 'gun' under his arm, Garlyle felt oddly safe. He didn't dare to try and point that at anyone for fear that the cloaking device wouldn't make it invisible. So he followed Jo, as she went up a ramp, in one of the slidey-doors, and around, through another door, and into a section of the same room we had been in, although it had been seperated by glass or some similar material. There, floating in mid-air, was a large metal device.  
Garlyle had to keep himself from gaping out loud. There, on the floating table, between two tall men covered in white from head-to-toe, was some kind of short, big-headed, sleeping alien figure.  
"Hey, wait!" one of the men cried out. "You're not."  
"Shut up" Joanna punched him right across the face. In the same move, she grabbed a small white device off of his belt, and aimed it at the other. Pulling a small trigger, the other man stumbled, then fell, asleep.  
"Now, you can hurt them if they come after us. In fact, don't let them through that passage!" Joanna pointed back to the door we had just came through. Garlyle saw the guards were coming around.  
Garlyle drew out his gun as he ran, and went back into the hall. The young boy saw a couple guards appear.  
On that mark, Garlyle remembered what Joanna had shown him, and pulled the trigger on the weapon. The effect was unexpected, and Garlyle was nearly blown back by the force. There was a deafening noise, and it took Garlyle a few moments to get the hang of controlling where the shots went. However, he had successfully put a large hole in the man's head, splattering his brains all over the place.  
"Looks like a monster attack." Garlyle muttered, shaking his head. "How can I be so inhuman? Maybe just one hole in the chest, next time."  
Just like Garlyle had said, he aimed and fired two shots right through the final two guard's chests, not leaving much of a mess at all. Unfortunately, every other shot aside from the two created several bullet holes along the floor, walls, and ceiling.  
Garlyle turned and ran back through the door. He was stunned as the alien hopped off of the floating table, in perfect shape. Pointy black eyes watched Joanna.  
"Are you okay? Can you walk? We have to get out of here before they get organized and hunt us down." Joanna said.  
"Yes, I'm fine" the alien answered, in an almost comical voice. "But. I have a headache. And with a head this big, that's no joke. What's your name?"  
"I'm Agent Dark. or Joanna, if you prefer" Joanna responded.  
"Well, Joanna, I'm Protector One. But, I guess you can call me Elvis" the alien smiled.  
"Alright, Elvis, let's get out of here." Joanna turned, and jumped as she saw Garlyle.  
"Garlyle! Your Cloaking Device ran out!" she muttered, snatching it. "Piece of."  
"Oh my." Garlyle shook his head. "Is this a problem?"  
"Be careful! They'll fire on sight when they see you! If those bullets from the guns hit you, then."  
"I already know what they do" Garlyle showed her the gun.  
"A SuperDragon might be a bit big for a kid like you." Joanna muttered. She took it from Garlyle, and handed him her smaller gun. "Here, Garlyle. Take this. It's much more accurate."  
Garlyle looked at it, and noticed the long tube overtop. Looking into it, he saw that it was like some kind of targeting system. Excellent.  
"Let's move it" Elvis nodded. "Oh, young man, what's your name?"  
"Garlyle Wilds."  
"You're not. of this galaxy. are you?"  
  
"Galaxy? What?"  
"Not even of this universe. this dimension" Elvis gaped. "Incredible!"  
"That's right!" Garlyle remembered suddenly, reaching into his pocket. "I'm not from this dimension."  
Quickly, he inspected the locket. He dropped it.  
"Oh my god!" Garlyle gaped. Elvis looked at it.  
"A painting of a Maian family, just like mine" Elvis beamed. "How interestin. wait! That's me!"  
"What!?" Garlyle gasped, looking over at the locket. Elvis was, indeed, in the place that Mek Ai had been in.  
"So then. Elvis, do you have a brother? Where is he?"  
"He's dead. Died in the Skedar wars a long time ago" Elvis responded. "Why?"  
"I'm." Garlyle began, but there was gunfire from out in the corridor. "Crap, we have to go help Joanna! I'll tell you later!"  
"Right" Elvis nodded.  
Just outside, several guards lay dead on the ground in the main room. "Let's move out of here!" Joanna cried.  
Then, suddenly, Garlyle choked, stumbling.  
"What's the matter?" Joanna asked.  
"I can feel." Garlyle muttered, gasping. "Something's. choking."  
The air was turning hazy in Garlyle's vision.  
"Nerve gas! We have to." Joanna had to stop to hack. "Get out of here!" she cried out, but Garlyle barely heard her.  
"I can't. feel." Garlyle fell to his knees, unable to balance standing up anymore. "Ceres. please."  
"Whatever."  
Garlyle extended his hands around himself, shakily. "Wind. *hack* tunnel!" he coughed out.  
Just like that, the haze blew away from him, leaving him, Joanna, and Elvis in a sort of protective air bubble.  
"What did you just do?" Joanna asked.  
"Most interesting. can all earthlings do that?" Elvis asked.  
Garlyle shook his head. "I don't know." he coughed a bit. "Let's go, fast!"  
Joanna looked at Elvis. "Can you work a gun?"  
  
"Can I? Of course" Elvis responded.  
Joanna tossed Elvis her SuperDragon. "Then take this, and use it. I'll carry Garlyle out of here."  
"I. I don't need." Garlyle protested. Then he stumbled.  
"Save your energy for maintaining whatever it is that you're doing. Now, let's get out of here!" Joanna responded, making a dash for the doors.  
Elvis went through first, though he couldn't get far from Garlyle or Joanna. Of course, the other guards were dead already; the gas had gotten them.  
As Joanna ran back into the hall, Elvis leading and Garlyle tucked in her arms, she ran towards the area where Garlyle had first appeared.  
From Joanna's ear, Garlyle could have sworn he heard a male voice that said, "We have to meet up, Jo. They're getting suspicious of me."  
"Understood, Jonathan" Joanna responded, quietly. Garlyle wondered if something possessed her. Then he noticed the small black earring that was not even hanging from her ear. Did this have something to do with it?  
Then, from the effort, Garlyle was forced to put all his energy back into maintaining the spell.  
"Come, Elvis" Joanna shot through one of the doors, where there was another blasted wall in the side of the area. It led to a large warehouse, where boxes were scattered all over. There was still the nerve gas, however.  
Elvis ran around one corner, let out a small exclamation, and started firing. "Jo! They've got gas masks!"  
"Oh, great" Jo shook her head. "Can you get them?"  
"Not without going farther ahead. Comeon, Jo!" Elvis cried out.  
Then, a burst of fire came from Jo's left, making her jump. One shot sliced open Garlyle's arm.  
Garlyle, his concentration broken, shouted loudly. It hurt, as if he had been stabbed with a spear in his open arm. Immediately, the spell faded.  
"Jo! I'm here!" a male voice shouted, though slightly muffled. Immediately, there was another shot from behind the first guard who had attacked, and he fell dead. A tall figure oddly resembling Joanna stood there, another gun in his hand. Some strange fabric was over his mouth, protecting him from the gas. But it was now getting to Garlyle, and getting to him hard.  
"Jonathan. help." Joanna cried, as the gas overcame her quickly.  
"Joanna!" Jonathan cried. And then, for Garlyle, there was no more vision, as his consciousness disappeared. 


	5. Interstellar War, Perfect Dark

Chapter 5 – Interstellar War  
  
::The Second Perfect Dark Chapter::  
  
The next thing Garlyle could remember was the sensation of strong, powerful arms holding him up as if he was a young child, holding him against a man's strong, almost-barren chest. Garlyle's arm, uncovered, could feel the soft touch of fur covering some of the front, as if some sort of vest. But he found himself unable to give any signs of acknowledgement.  
He couldn't even open his eyes, couldn't move his body. The only thing he could hear was a quiet, peaceful humming, almost a 'shush'. It was calming, and Garlyle slowly felt himself calming down, becoming almost part of the strange embrace.  
"Don't worry, Garlyle, you're okay..."  
The voice was both completely new to the boy, and so familiar to him that it should have clued in immediately who it was. However, it didn't. It bugged Garlyle slightly, but the warm hands and soothing voice wiped most of the worries from his mind.  
But a few moments later, Garlyle felt his youthful curiosity creeping up on him again. Where was he? Who was this that was holding him? Was it... his father?  
Yes, there was something very familiar, almost as if the voice was family. It had to be...  
"Fa... Father...?"  
Garlyle slowly opened his eyes and looked up, expecting to see his father's dark, handsome face, with its hard-set brown eyes and rough brown hair that Garlyle had inherited.  
It wasn't.  
The man holding him was totally unfamiliar to Garlyle, with soft, short, and messy soft white hair, and pitch black eyes that actually seemed to be light with the smile upon the pale face.  
"No... who are you...?"  
The face simply smiled reassuringly, and Garlyle found himself calmed instantly, knowing that he was in safe hands. He still didn't know whose hands, but...  
And then, suddenly, he was really awake, the strange protective sensation totally gone. As he opened his eyes and saw the brown ceiling above him, he wondered where he was this time.  
He sat up, to find himself in nothing but a white shirt and a rather baggy pair of blue pants. They were baggy simply because they were a few sizes too large for him. His bandana, everything else, was the same. They had probably simply put him into new clothes.  
They? Who was Garlyle thinking of?  
Slowly his memory returned. Joanna... the alien... gunfire... gas...  
Garlyle pushed some of the white sheets off of himself and stood up, walking around the room a bit. This place, wherever it was, was much more pleasant.  
Then he spotted a wooden door in one corner, and walked towards it. It slid open as he approached.  
Startled, just outside was a man wearing a blue-and-white uniform, and Garlyle recognized it somewhat. It looked like the one Joanna had been wearing.  
"You're awake..." the guard took note and immediately left, walking along something like a balcony lined with glass. Garlyle walked up to it, trying to avoid acting excited. This was a new place for him, yet his first reaction here had been a welcome one...  
He looked down, seeing in front of him a large foyer with a single large d on it... or was it a 'cI'? It was hard to tell. Beyond it was a single door, and a couple couches lined the sides of the walls.  
"Would you come with me?"  
It was the guard. Happily, Garlyle obliged, following him into a small glass chamber. Two panels slid shut in front, and then the ground they were on went down, landing softly, as the panels slid open again. An elevator.  
Yet this simple thing did manage to make Garlyle gape in amazement again, though he did his best this time to stifle it. He didn't want to seem as if this was the first time he had seen all of this. Though it technically was...  
Turning left, the guard led Garlyle into the room they had just been in. "Joanna has been waiting for you... she was about to leave on a most important meeting..." the guard informed the young boy. "She said that if you were to wake up in time that you were to go with her... we must hurry. They'll be leaving any moment!"  
"Coming!" Garlyle responded, as they picked up the pace a bit.  
A sudden explosion knocked both Garlyle and the guard off of their feet, sending them flying. It was obviously close by.  
Then another clash, and the two halves of the steel door were torn off of their hinges, and something stepped through.  
It looked as if it had been brought right out of a nightmare, a long, stone-like bodied creature with two legs and a large body and gaping maw, and two long hands ending in bloodied claws.  
"A demon...?" Garlyle gaped.  
One hand of the strange creature oriented on the guard beside Garlyle, and Garlyle noticed it was carrying something, a large chunk of metal of some sort.  
It started glowing flame red. A few moments later, before the guard had even recovered enough to draw his gun, the strange alien's weapon fired.  
The man's chest had been almost destroyed, a large hole right through the center of his body. He fell backwards, so obviously dead it wasn't funny, as his blood and innards flowed freely.  
Then the weapon oriented on Garlyle, intending on doing the same.  
"Allow me, Garlyle"  
Ceres' voice! Finally, a familiar voice!  
Ceres was one of two demon brothers who were among the most powerful of their kind. They both took the forms of dragons. Ceres controlled the powers of wind and flame, two of the major elements. Garlyle had, in his youth, been unfortunate enough to have the demon unsealed from its near- thousand-year sleep within a dragon statue, and in the end Garlyle had lost his parents to the demon. They had tried to reseal the demon; instead, they had only succeeded in halting it. The original statue had been shattered, and for Ceres to be truly sealed he would require a vessel to hold him. Garlyle, unknowingly, touched the demon and became that vessel.  
Now the demon would protect Garlyle because it had to. Even it was not sure of its future if Garlyle were to die... would the demon dragon be set free again, or be lost forever...?  
All Garlyle knew was that, at times, he never would have lived without the help of the same thing his parents had died trying to get rid of... ironic, huh?  
As the strange metallic weapon charged again, Garlyle was already up on his feet, dashing towards the alien. It didn't seem fazed at all.  
But it did seem somewhat shocked when a long chain of flame emerged in Garlyle's palm, swinging back, then bashing the alien's weapon right out of its hand.  
This was his magic at work. Garlyle had been born into a line of the strongest magicians in his home world; magic was second nature to him in his homeland. Even here, where there seemed to be no magic, Garlyle's natural magic was so strong some of it was carried with him.  
And it was only enhanced by the pure magical energy that made up the demon Ceres, allowing Garlyle to do what should have been impossible here...  
Garlyle prepared to make a single strike to destroy the alien, but he had gotten too close. The alien took a single stomp and was up to him, and Garlyle realized just how tall this menace was.  
It reached back, and Garlyle was frozen in fear. He prepared for what he knew was coming: the worst.  
And then there was a hail of gunfire, and the alien collapsed, the hard shell of it blasted apart and lying dead on the ground in front of him.  
"Garlyle! You're alive!"  
It was Joanna's voice! Ecstatic, Garlyle turned towards her, as she ran towards him, a long, new style of gun in her hand. Garlyle could care less about the specifics; at least she had weaponry!  
"What the hell was that?" Garlyle demanded, still somewhat paralyzed.  
"Skedar... go, Garlyle, run back where I came from" she cried out to him. "Get on board the ship, there, hurry! You'll be safe!"  
"But what about you?" Garlyle responded, hastily.  
"Don't worry about me!" Joanna cried back, as she hurried towards the elevator Garlyle had just taken. "Just get to safety with the others!"  
Obediently, Garlyle quickly followed her instructions, running down a small ramp towards a docking bay. There was a single metallic floating ship, or something resembling one in Garlyle's opinion. Instantly, he knew that was what Joanna meant.  
There was Jonathan, on board, waving Garlyle over. "Garlyle!"  
Garlyle ran over, jumping into the hull of the ships, crowded in with a couple others, as a battle of explosions and gunfire rang out over their heads.  
"What's going on? What the hell... are the Skedar?" Garlyle demanded.  
"They're warlike aliens..." a tall, somewhat pudgy but fine-looking man in a white suit responded from beside Garlyle. "We believe they've been trying to destroy this planet for a while now..."  
"Destroy... a whole planet...?" Garlyle's eyes spun. He had faced horrors before that would have destroyed a whole continent... but an entire planet!? This was too much!  
A few more people shortly joined Garlyle, including a tall man with glasses and a woman with short blonde hair. They were all wearing long gray coats that brushed just above the floor.  
Then Joanna came running, from the same entrance Garlyle had taken.  
"Joanna! Joanna!!" everybody called over.  
"Get clear! I'll hold them off!" Joanna shouted over towards them. "You can come back for me later!"  
"You heard the woman!" the tall man with glasses cried out. A large steel panel began to shut itself along the side of the bay, closing off the ship, as it began to lift in the air.  
Though Garlyle would have normally loved to experience the feeling of flying, now was not the time!  
He dived off of the ship, landing on the steel flooring, as a couple of the large alien 'Skedar' pounded through the same route everybody had come through.  
"Garlyle, what are you doing?" Joanna dived behind some boxes, and Garlyle followed suit.  
"I'm not leaving you behind!" Garlyle responded, as Joanna took a couple shots and downed a Skedar. But almost immediately two more were coming in behind him.  
"But you aren't even armed!" Joanna cried, as she watched the ship fly off beside them.  
"I don't need your fancy 'guns', I'll do this my way!" Garlyle responded.  
In their moment of distraction, a Skedar was up in front of them. Joanna fumbled her pistol in surprise, but Garlyle was ready.  
He swung a hand forward, and a single boulder of flame launched out, shooting right through the middle part of the alien body and melting it, destroying it completely.  
"What the hell was that?" Joanna demanded.  
"Joanna, look out!" Garlyle cried.  
Another had reached the boxes Joanna was behind, and had knocked them over. Almost immediately the heavy metal crates had buried her.  
"Joanna!"  
Then he felt a strong, stone-like backhand to his back, and he went flying forwards, skidding to the front of the panel. Consciousness left him almost instantly.  
*****  
When Garlyle finally did awake, he knew he had once again changed locations strongly. He was locked and bound with a room plated with navy blue metal walls, and there was a single Skedar watching him, seemingly hungrily.  
And suddenly Garlyle remembered words that strange 'Elvis' being had told him.  
"He's dead. Died in the Skedar wars a long time ago"  
Garlyle suddenly recognized this as probably the worst situation for him. It was the Skedar who had killed his alternate self in this reality... but he knew that there was no way for him to fight back, bound like this...  
The Skedar stepped over slowly towards him, and opened up its claws. Garlyle closed his eyes.  
Nothing happened. A few moments later, Garlyle opened them again. Inside of the claws was something... a sort of food? Was that it?  
Yes! As Garlyle looked, he saw it... it was nothing but a simple cookie. He didn't want to take it, but the sight suddenly reminded of the fact that he hadn't eaten in... Well, to be honest, a long while now.  
He was hesitant, but after realizing that this alien was offering him, he timidly took it and bit into it.  
Chocolate chip, his favorite! Almost instantly it was gone, and somehow Garlyle knew that this wasn't quite the same... but this Skedar... unlike the others that he had seen, it seemed, friendly...  
"Hello, Garlyle." A voice seemed to come from the mouth, though there was no movement.  
"Who...?"  
"It's me, Syiolen."  
Garlyle jumped back another couple of steps. "Syi... Syiolen! How..."  
"Don't tell me you didn't expect it..."  
"Well..." Garlyle had to admit, it was quite shocking, but 'Syiolen' cut him off before he managed to finish off the thought aloud.  
"You're lucky to be alive..." the voice was snakelike and it seemed threatening, but it was still the same man who had saved Garlyle before. "I recognized you and convinced the others that you weren't to be killed..."  
"There is some kind of civilized manner to your kind then..." Garlyle dully noted.  
"At least, that you were so important spiritually to the Skedar that the only one who should have the rights to kill you is our High Leader."  
"Your leader?" Garlyle blinked. His spirits fell. So he was just on death row right now...  
"Listen..." the alien-Syiolen communicated to him. "You've already realized that you were killed by our kind in this universe... Eventually, one day, you'll be able to come back and get your revenge..."  
"What?" Garlyle blinked.  
"But now is neither the time nor the place! You aren't strong enough yet to survive..." Syiolen warned him. "But if things happen as they will now, you will be slaughtered! Do you understand?"  
Garlyle nodded simply, understanding what Syiolen was getting at. "Then are you going to send me away, to a new land, just as all the others have done before you?"  
"Yes" Syiolen admitted. "Are you prepared?"  
"Yes" Garlyle nodded.  
"Then be off."  
With those words, Garlyle felt a tug at his collar, then at every inch of his body, and then he was gone. 


	6. Fragment, Soul Calibur

Chapter 6 - Fragment  
  
::The First Soul Calibur Chapter::  
Garlyle didn't expect to be feeling the strong arms again.  
There they were, holding onto him, in his strange dream. Strong arms and soft hands, holding him up against a fur vest worn around a man's strong chest, and...  
He could already feel the black but lively eyes watching him, softly, calming him, as his lips hummed the sweet sound they made...  
But Garlyle had to know. He had to know who this was. He forced his eyes to open, to stare at whoever this unusual man was.  
"Who... are you...?" Garlyle asked.  
The man reacted to this question simply by smiling, his eyes lighting up. Somehow, just seeing the smile on the man's face made Garlyle feel at peace, and he fell back into the strong grip again, not caring for a moment. He felt, for a moment, as if the man had put something into his pocket, but then the sensation was gone, and Garlyle simply relaxed, blissfully happy.  
*****  
When Garlyle awoke again, it was to a familiar hustle and bustle that he knew well, the sounds of a city. He lifted his head off of the ground, where he had been lying in a back alleyway, a couple rats skittered away from him as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.  
Feeling, to check if everything was on him, he felt at his chest and felt both the portrait and Ceres' fang hanging in front of his heart, calming him. And then, subconsciously, his hand went to the pocket of his shorts where the strange dream-man had given him something. He was surprised to find something there.  
He lifted it up in front of his face, looking at the strange red glowing fragment.  
"What... is this?" Garlyle blinked, inspecting it carefully.  
"I can sense... evil magic around it..." Ceres spoke from within Garlyle's mind.  
"Agreed, I don't like this thing at all..." Garlyle shook his head. "But why would he give it to me?"  
"Why would who give it to you?"  
Garlyle was surprised that Ceres didn't know... who? Garlyle found himself unable to picture his strange... his strange what? His memory was failing him, though on such an important detail... er... it was important, right?  
Shaking his head, Garlyle decided to get an idea about where he was, so he stepped into the bustling streets, where there were many people going about their business, stopping in markets all around, purchasing what they needed.  
Then, just as Garlyle got up onto a barrel so he could see around him, commotion suddenly stirred through the streets.  
"Run! It's a demon!" "Monster!" "Run! Hide! Everybody, quick!"  
Immediately, the general reaction of sheer chaos, as parents tried to cover their kids up quickly, and some tried to dive for cover or escape, as far as they could, from the centre of the commotion, just around the corner. Garlyle was knocked off, and for a few moments, his vision blurred. He tried to refocus, but was hit on the head by somebody running frantically, and his eyes blurred once again.  
When he finally was able to focus again, he noticed that everybody had cleared away, save the apparent 'monster'. Tall and green, covered in metal armour of a sort and spikes, with a large glowing orange orb at his heart, it definitely filled the role of 'demon'.  
Garlyle stood up quickly, trying to back away, but the strange monster's eyes turned towards Garlyle.  
"What... are you?" Garlyle looked at it.  
"Hurjiinjjuao" it muttered some sort of alien language, its hands reaching for the glowing orb. "MjhgihSoulEdgehiardio" it spoke again, and Garlyle realised that it had spoken halfway intelligible words for a moment... Soul Edge? What was that?  
As the monster's hands reached its chest, it withdrew them again, taking the strange orange haze out of it, and it formed into a ball in the monster's hands, like some strange weapon. He raised his hands, and the energy formed into two blades.  
"Ceres, what is this thing?" Garlyle demanded, not expecting his inner demon to have an answer.  
"The monster or the energy?"  
"Both!"  
"I don't know about the monster, but... the energy... I can't tell you much at all."  
"You're a lot of help!" Garlyle turned, and tried to run, but found the ground in front of him heating up.  
Invisible hands held him back, the will of Ceres, and it was a good thing he did. A pillar of flame erupted in front of Garlyle, where he would have stepped, and then that would have done it. It had made a large gaping hole in the scaffolding above it, and the reaction caused it to start to tumble.  
Garlyle, reacting fast, dived to the side, rolling. Just barely, he escaped being crushed, but the alien menace was advancing upon him, and it was already just above him, the two swords looming dangerously in each hand...  
Garlyle grabbed for anything he could find, and found himself holding a single board from the wreckage. Snatching at it, he lifted it up. It barely held against the monster's energy, but it held.  
Then Garlyle kicked upwards, towards the beast's chest. He focused his energy as he did, his foot becoming a missile of flame, and he slammed it into the beast's gut, pushing him off.  
Garlyle discarded the board, and instead reached for the only weapon he would never remove, pulling off the chain that held Ceres' fang, and holding it out before him.  
Garlyle had retrieved the fang after his home was destroyed, back in his home dimension, from a group of thieves who thought they could just steal the one immortal, unbreakable family heirloom from the wreckage. After all, it was the only completely physical aspect of the demon Ceres, and it served excellently as a dagger. It had never even fractured, and seemed to cut through armour with ease.  
So Garlyle had never gone anywhere without it, and now he was ready to use it again.  
As the strange monster righted itself, it slammed the two energy blades together to form one large sword that it needed both hands to wield. Surprised, Garlyle barely blocked it with the fang in time, before kicking up again to knock the strange attacker back again.  
What did it want with him? What was 'Soul Edge'?  
Garlyle scrambled backwards, preparing himself for the next attack. The alien being switched weapons again, this time opting for a strange sword. As he swung it, Garlyle parried it, dodging to the side, and he saw it lengthen, separate sections of it splitting off connected by a wire in the middle, becoming a whip.  
Surprised, Garlyle couldn't react in time as the alien swung it about, and the collision sent Garlyle flying from his light weight, and he crashed into a merchant's stall, the shoulder where the whip had cut him was bleeding.  
"How...?" Garlyle's eyes unfocused and refocused, and the monster moved quickly closer. This time, as it swung, Garlyle was ready for the attack that snaked along the ground straight towards him, with more mind then that of any normal whip.  
He blocked it, by pinning the final segment down with the dagger, then his foot.  
But he should have realised this couldn't possibly this simple, as the sections of the whip fragmented, and flew at him, intent on impaling him.  
There was no time to dodge. Garlyle shouted, and raised his arm to protect his face...  
Only one hit, just barely scraping one of his elbows before embedding itself in the wall. A silhouetted figure was standing over Garlyle, and the boy could see a long red staff in the man's hands, still spinning.  
"Necrid! Go away!"  
"kijihsdfiniboSoulEdgeshiibssk" 'Necrid' shouted towards the protector.  
"You know Soul Edge has been destroyed! Give it up, Necrid!" Garlyle's protector, with his long staff, answered back.  
Garlyle slowly peeked out from behind his protector, and could finally see who it was. A tall man with fine brown hair, chestnut eyes, well-built, with a long red jacket that almost looked like a cape, with the front open, as well as leather pants and a sash for a belt. "Who are you?"  
"My name is Kilik..." the man responded. "Get out of here..."  
"What is Soul Edge?" Garlyle demanded, not moving.  
"The Evil Sword... it was destroyed... and it doesn't matter to you! Get out of here!" Kilik shouted towards Garlyle, and normally it would have worked, but Garlyle was intent on fighting.  
"I can fight, let me help you" Garlyle raised Ceres' fang in front of him again, pointing it towards Necrid, as the alien reformed his weapon. Garlyle gulped, but stood courageous, as Necrid's strange energy became claws upon his hands.  
"No, get out of here..." Kilik growled to Garlyle, as Necrid attacked. He pulled his staff backwards, then shoved it forward into Necrid's chest, the impact sending the alien monster backwards a bit.  
Garlyle responded with a growl, before putting his hand behind him. "Care to aid me, Ceres?"  
"Do it yourself"  
"Fine!" Garlyle muttered a few words under his breath, and a ball of fire erupted in his hand. Like a star pitcher, he whipped it towards home plate – the orb on Necrid's chest.  
As he struck it, Necrid's weapons returned to their basic form, returning to the glass, and the alien mysteriously disappeared.  
"Did we win?"  
"No, he ran away..." Kilik growled. "Who are you, kid?"  
"My name's Garlyle Wilds!" Garlyle smiled. "And..."  
Then, suddenly, he a flash of realisation. He reached into his pocket. "Wait... Soul Edge... does he mean this?"  
Garlyle grabbed the metal fragment, and showed it to Kilik.  
The man gasped, backing up, and readying his staff. "How... where did you...? That weapon was destroyed, I swear, we..."  
"It was given to me..."  
"By whom?"  
"I can't remember" Garlyle shook his head, and he looked up at Kilik. "Why...?"  
"That sword is evil! It's the seal that prevents 'The Catastrophe'... it was rebuilt, and a beast of flames emerged, but it was defeated again..."  
"Again?"  
"Listen, kid, don't ask, just hand it over. You shouldn't be messing with this kind of thing!" Kilik reached for the fragment of the Soul Edge.  
Garlyle backed up, and raised his dagger. "No. It's mine. What will you do with it anyway?"  
"Destroy it, just like Xianghua did with the others!"  
Garlyle looked down at it. "Take me to this... Xianghua... I want to see this through..." Garlyle looked up at him. "Don't expect to get it off of me until then!" he tucked it into his pocket, and seeing Kilik seem to give up, he replaced the chain around his neck.  
Then he realised the other chain around his neck was no longer there. The one that had held the portrait of his family...  
"It's gone! Where...?" Garlyle looked around, and saw it, lying down on the ground, beside them, right by where he had drawn off the fang's chain... he must have whipped the other one off by mistake! It was a good thing he had noticed!  
Garlyle reached for it quickly, and it fell open in his hand. Kilik look over his shoulder, and blinked.  
"That's me..."  
He pointed. The second youngest of the people in the image was certainly Kilik. They looked too old to be Garlyle's family, if those were his parents in the back, well, they looked as if they would have been his grandparents, and his brother...  
Wait a second...  
Garlyle turned to face Kilik. "What's your last name?" he asked.  
"I never found out. I never knew my parents."  
"How do you know Kilik is even your real name, then?" Garlyle demanded.  
"I don't" he responded.  
"Then I know your true real name..." Garlyle smiled. "This is your family... Your true name is Garlyle Wilds."  
"But that's you... What kind of trickery is this?" Kilik brandished his staff again.  
"Hear me out!" and, once again, Garlyle explained, quickly, about the 'Dimensions'.  
It took Kilik a moment, but he understood. "Then, my true name is Garlyle? I... I don't know, I prefer Kilik..."  
Garlyle shook a bit, but shrugged. "Do as you wish..."  
There was still something that bugged him, though. How could Kilik be him? The man was at least 15 years older than him! How could that be?  
"Come, I'll take you to see Xianghua..." Kilik looked down at the younger boy, before walking along. "It'll be a fair travel, but..."  
"I understand" Garlyle smiled, following Kilik's steps obediently. 


	7. Another Traveller, Soul Calibur

Chapter 7: Another Traveller  
  
::The Second Soul Calibur Chapter::  
Their journey led them across lands Garlyle had never seen before, but catching a ride on a horse-powered carriage as they neared both their destinations and night after having finally eaten their fill in a small village (Garlyle: I had been starving before then!), Garlyle was finally able to sleep again.  
He was glad he finally had the opportunity, because he once again felt at peace in his dreams, the strong arms of his mysterious, white- haired guardian holding him close, as if he was a dearest son, and Garlyle felt quite nice sleeping again in his dreams, curled up against the man's strong chest, listening to the soft, sweet humming.  
He didn't ask anything of the man this time, instead, chose simply not to look a gift horse in the mouth...  
And almost as if on cue with that, the carriage drew to a stop, throwing Garlyle out of the hay and onto the ground behind them, as Kilik made a more graceful dismounting beside him.  
Groggily, with a headache from impact, Garlyle stood up. "Couldn't have warned me we were going to stop?" Garlyle demanded.  
"We're here..." Kilik responded.  
"Where's here?" Garlyle looked around. It looked like nothing but an old battlefield, the ruins of a temple near them.  
"This... used to be the temple where I trained... until the evil of the Soul Edge possessed those in the temple, myself included, and the place was cursed with the blood of all those who were slaughtered by those stronger..." Kilik looked down at the ground.  
"Why did we come here?" Garlyle asked.  
"It is near here," Kilik pointed towards a different direction, "where me, Maxi, and Xianghua call our 'home', or what we have of one..."  
As they walked towards a small patch of forest, Garlyle inquired as to who they were, interested.  
"They are my friends and long travelling companions... Maxi left shortly ago, to pay his respects to his slaughtered comrades, but he should return any day now... Xianghua is still there, taking care of Soul Calibur..."  
"Soul Calibur?"  
"The polar opposite of Soul Edge, it is the only blade capable of truly destroying the evil within it..." Kilik tried to explain. "It's..."  
"...not like back home, I'll say that much" Garlyle commented, half smiling. He thought a lot about it, as they reached the small house that was built in the woods, calmly, peacefully.  
"Xianghua!" Kilik called inside.  
Almost instantly, a fine young woman, probably just over twenty, greeted them happily. She was wearing a blue one-piece outfit that went from her shoulders down past her knees, and there was a sword with a beautiful feather-like hilt hanging in a sheath at her side.  
She smiled with her brilliant eyes and black hair. "Welcome back, Kilik... Who's this with you? An orphan boy?"  
"Show her, Garlyle" Kilik instructed.  
Garlyle dug into her pocket, and produced the fragment of the Soul Edge.  
Xianghua jumped back and gasped, instantly drawing her blade and pointing it at the weapon. The blade was unusual without a doubt, split in two right down the middle, but it was a fine piece of work, and Garlyle could feel the great spiritual energy it had.  
"The Soul Edge? But how...?" Xianghua protested. "I destroyed it..."  
"I know" Kilik muttered, apparently not understanding himself. "But can you destroy this fragment?"  
"Of course..." Xianghua smiled. "Please, boy, give me the fragment..."  
Garlyle looked down at it, and pulled it backwards a bit. "No... Not yet..."  
This earned him a harsh glare from both of the older warriors. "I... I mean, of course, but... I... You'll just send me away, afterwards..."  
"Not after what you've told me, I won't," Kilik promised.  
"What did he tell you?" Xianghua inquired.  
"Let's step inside, Xianghua," Kilik smiled. "I have a lot to tell y..."  
"Hey! Kilik! Xianghua!"  
All three turned to see a strong man in a white vest and pants, with two nunchucks and spiky black hair approaching, smiling and waving. Somehow, to Garlyle, he looked familiar, but...  
"Ta... Taka?" Garlyle blinked, as he looked at the approaching man. He swore, for a moment, that he could see a tint of purple in the man's hair, but maybe it was just a trick of the sunlight.  
"Maxi! Glad to see you're back!" Xianghua ran over to him, sheathing the Soul Calibur, and hugging him, despite Maxi's protests (And Garlyle could sense Kilik's, as well, though he wasn't totally sure why).  
And suddenly, seeing them, it all made sense.  
"What's going on...?" Garlyle blinked. "How...? But I thought I could only travel through space, not..."  
"Not through time? It doesn't seem that far of a stretch, sir Garlyle..."  
Garlyle shook somewhat. He understood, of course.  
When he had come to this new universe, he had gone a few years into the future... Here, he had grown up, and that meant that it was totally understandable who Maxi and Xianghua were like, in his homeland. Maxi was more than likely Garlyle's long-best friend, Taka, who he had, in his homeland, taken on as his apprentice in return for the lives that he owed the boy who was only older by a day. And Xianghua, was Kiana...  
Kiana was the one person who could separate Taka and Garlyle, and make them fight. Not with any trick of the mind, but simply because both boys treasured her and wanted her to be theirs. She was the daughter of Jael, the man who had taken care of them back home, which could make things tricky at times, but in the end it all seemed to be working out.  
Separating from their hug, Maxi walked over and shook Kilik's hand, smiling at him, Kilik returning the same smile.  
"Who's this?" Maxi looked down at Garlyle, then at Garlyle's hand, where the fragment of the Soul Edge still remained. With one hand, he whipped his nunchucks around, but prepared for it, Garlyle withdrew his hand and sprung backwards, re-pocketing the fragment.  
"His name is Garlyle... I have a lot to explain..." Kilik responded.  
"Well, whoever he is, he's fast..." Maxi smiled.  
"Listen, I'm sure all of us have stories to share... let's get inside..."  
*****  
Inside, Garlyle listened to the stories. Apparently 'Maxi' had returned to where the graves were for his slain comrades, who were destroyed by a mad axe-wielding monstrosity known as Astaroth, and Maxi had paid them their respects finally.  
And Kilik had simply been journeying for no apparent reason, but he had felt the urge to leave, and then let Garlyle tell his bit of the story, which he told in all honesty, even explaining about Kilik's true history and about the dimensions, but not speaking anything about Taka and Kiana, or about his own world...  
"Now, there's only one question" Kilik muttered. "Where'd you get that fragment of the Soul Edge?"  
"Well..." Garlyle looked at it again. "I wish I could remember, but..."  
And then he remembered the hay cart, his memories of his dreams...  
"A dream..." Garlyle muttered under his breath. "I had this dream that somebody... or something... gave it to me..." he tried to get it straight, but then realised that his memory was becoming fuzzy again, so got it out quickly before it faded again. "And he put it in my pocket, and when I woke up... I had it..."  
"Unusual" Xianghua muttered. "But will you let us destroy it now...?"  
"I..." Garlyle thought about it. Why couldn't he allow Xianghua to shatter the fragment?  
"Not yet, Garlyle!" Ceres muttered, inside his head. "Just a couple more minutes."  
"Until what?" Garlyle thought to himself.  
"Until... I don't know... but something will happen..."  
"I can't let you destroy it..." Garlyle put it back in his pocket, but before the glares could even fully formed, he finished with "...yet."  
He looked down at the ground, as all three asked him why.  
"I can't... I don't know, but..."  
"Maybe the power of the Soul Edge is getting to him" Maxi muttered, holding his Nunchucks at ready.  
"No! It's just, I have this sense, that something's about to..." Garlyle looked around.  
There was a thud from outside, and the ground seemed to shake with the impact. Quickly, everybody ran outside.  
There, unconscious, was a young man, though probably only just over 13 or 14, with messy purple hair, a black vest, and baggy jeans, with a sack carried on his back, held on a belt that looped around his shoulder. Another belt that crossed his waist had a strange, blue, metal device attached to it, with a plastic screen somewhat like the ones Garlyle had seen back in that weird laboratory with Joanna. He looked quite rugged, but his body was in fair shape, even if he did look maybe only a bit older than Garlyle.  
"Who is he...?" Garlyle muttered, leaning down at him. Then he felt something familiar...  
There was that 'out of this worldly' feel about him... The same thing he had felt when he had first seen Syiolen... Was this him?  
"Oh, the poor child..." Xianghua moved over to him and lifted him up with ease that nearly made Garlyle gasp. "Let's get him inside."  
All present and conscious nodded, before following her back inside.  
*****  
A couple hours later, the young adolescent awoke to find himself in strange surroundings. As he stood up, he reached for his belts, calming quickly to discover they were still there. Slowly, he sat up groggily, shaking his head.  
"Where... where am I? What kind of primitive dwelling is this?" the boy muttered.  
A slightly mechanical, only half-way emotional voice came from the metal device at his side. "I am unsure, Kozo-dono. It appears to be an old style peasant home, the kind used during the feudal periods of Japan and China..."  
"So I can see, but..." Kozo looked around. "Why are we here, anyway, Falcon?"  
"I do not know" Falcon, the strange mechanical device, replied. On the screen, it showed a man in light blue armour, whose face, with its spike-back red hair and sharp features, did indeed seem to resemble a bird of prey. "I believe though that we have gone to a time... long before our own."  
"How is that possible?" Kozo demanded. "How even remotely could we have gone back in ti..."  
"Oh, are you awake?"  
Kozo turned to face one of the doorways, where Garlyle was standing. "Who are you?" Kozo moved, switching into a fighting position.  
Garlyle laughed. "Don't worry, boy, I mean you no harm. Who are you?"  
"My name is Kozo Grausherra. Who are you?" Kozo demanded.  
"Grausherra? That's funny..." Garlyle thought to himself. "Wasn't Taka's last name Yobuu-Grausherra...?"  
Then Garlyle gave a proper response, after shaking that strange thought out of his head. "My name is Garlyle Wilds."  
"Garlyle Wilds, huh?" Kozo smiled. "Nice to meet you."  
"Nice to meet you too. Where do you come from?" Garlyle asked.  
"He may be simplistic, Kozo, try to explain it nicely. Children from this era in time were rarely well educated..." Falcon muttered, from beside Garlyle.  
"I'm from way after the day after tomorrow" Kozo tried to explain.  
"So you're from the far future? Interesting indeed" Garlyle smiled. "And what's that at your side?" he pointed.  
"That is my... err... how can I explain this? My friend... he's kinda not real, but..." Kozo stuttered out, trying to find the right way to explain it.  
"Well, what's his name?" Garlyle demanded.  
"It's Falcon" the man in the device introduced himself.  
"Mechanical, right?" Garlyle asked. Kozo blinked, then nodded his head. "No need to play stupid around me, after all, I've got been through a lot."  
"So, then, this isn't the past? You seem about as intelligent as a person of my time..."  
"Depends" Garlyle shrugged. "Actually, I come from... another time and place... as well as I believe you do..."  
"Re... Really?" Kozo asked, perking up.  
Garlyle nodded his head. "Listen, tell me your story... how you got here, what it's like in your time and world..."  
"Wait just a moment..." Kozo smiled. "You tell me yours first..." he smirked. "Falcon will record every word of it, right?"  
"As you wish, Kozo-dono" he responded.  
Garlyle wondered what the title was for, but he decided not to ask about it. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"  
And so, with the other three standing in a room near them, listening, Garlyle went through his story, ever since having met with Syiolen that first time...  
And Falcon recorded it down, digitally storing it away.  
"This will make one hell of a story, back home!" Kozo smiled. "If I ever get back home, anyway... People won't ever believe it's true, but..."  
"Well, let's hear your story" Garlyle smiled.  
"If you insist..." Kozo leaned back a bit, and began his story. 


	8. Kozo's Story, Rockman EXE

Chapter 8 – Kozo's Story  
  
::The First Rockman EXE/New Generation Chapter::  
"Oh, gods, where should I begin? Well, I'd start at the beginning, but... to tell you the truth, Garlyle, I'm not sure myself. See, I don't remember much before I was... nine, I think... No, must have been about eleven or so that I can start to remember things after. So I'm not even sure who my family is, but... all I know is that my name is Kozo Grausherra. Actually, Kozo's just my nickname, it means 'urchin'. Not sure what my real first name is...  
"Anyway, truth be told, I was pretty much an urchin where I came from. I lived as long as I could remember in an orphanage just outside of a large city known as Akihara. It was just me, and my friends, and our Pets...  
"Err... P.E.T.s, I mean. Net Navis. Digital aides, like Falcon here... Say hello, Falcon.  
"Hello"  
"Good. Anyway, I grew up in cramped conditions, with crabs for roommates, though maybe it was because I kept sneaking their food whenever I was hungry. So I was a bit greedy, so sue me! Anyway, one day about a half year or so ago, in my time, anyway, I got kicked out of the orphanage after... umm, it's a long story... You want me to tell it anyway? If you insist...  
"Well, okay, one of my roommates was this older teen named Kihachi. Anyway, me and Kihachi, we were pretty good friends when we chose to be, but most of the time we preferred to remain alone, going our separate ways, and we both understood that. It was easier for us, and we never bothered each other unless we both wanted a bit of friendship for a while, just to relax.  
"He was, about the closest thing I had to a friend. Yeah, that's right. Was.  
"Kihachi was supposed to have been adopted on that day, but when his new parents were supposed to come and get him, they never came. Later that night, he found out they had become involved in a car crash on the way, and never made it...  
Garlyle cut in. "Car crash?"  
"You don't know what a car is? It's like an automatic horse-drawn carriage, I suppose. Just a lot faster. And there's no horses. And they're bad for getting into crashes with other cars, and a lot of the time people get hurt or killed.  
"Okay, enough about that. Anyway, I felt really bad for him, so I went to him to try and cheer him up, because honestly I felt like he needed it. But when I found him... umm...  
Kozo sniffled. "Sorry, this is hard for me to say...  
"Back up in my room, I saw him slit his own throat. Gods, I still don't want to think about it... I had been a bit late in trying to cheer the kid up, maybe if I had only been just a bit sooner... It still bugs me that I didn't do anything but...  
"Anyway, I sat and cried for a while... what? Don't tell me you've never done it! ...Thought so. And next thing I remember, I had found this note that he had written... I still remember every word of it... it was written to me, freakishly, and it simply said, "I'm never going to have a future, but maybe... maybe someday you'll find yours, Kozo..."  
"And I pocketed the note, and the next thing I know, the head of the Academy comes in, wanting to cheer up Kihachi, and he sees the slit throat, and of course thinks the worse and instantly starts to accuse me of having done it. And I'm crying out "No, no, I swear, he did it himself!" but he won't listen to me.  
"So I pull out the note and he just reads it, shreds it, and says that I forged it to try and keep myself from looking guilty. So I tell him I had no reason to kill him and that he was my friend, and he goes into some story about how I was jealous of his age and how he was picked over me to be adopted and how I've always been a kid who lived off of rage, and...  
"Umm... Well, I think you get the idea. I lost the fight in the end, and I got kicked out, so I ended up wandering the streets, trying to find somebody to take me in. Luckily for me, I only ended up going about two weeks before I was found...  
"It was by a lonely young man, only about nineteen or twenty years old, named Acentine Darass... and when I met him, he took me in because he felt sorry for me. Great guy, red spiky hair, strong body, looked like the most handsome thing you can imagine, and...  
Garlyle spoke up, "I have the feeling he did more than just take you in."  
Kozo started, jumping. "What do you mean by that, anyway? Listen, just because I lived with him for about four months and we were both lonely and gods, I already miss him... I wonder if he's realised I'm gone?"  
Garlyle's eyebrow raised. "I was right then. You did..."  
Kozo looked nervous. "Now hold on, there, Garlyle. I'm serious, we've never done anything, geez! How the hell would you know about that kind of thing, anyway, kid?"  
Garlyle laughed. "I'm not as innocent as most children my age. But continue anyway."  
"Umm... well, yeah, I think you kinda get the next part. We did fall in love, you're right. But we had hard times. He barely made enough to pay the rent and keep his home, and with me added to the mix it was harder. I helped in any way I could. Then the perfect opportunity showed up.  
"They were have a Navi Battling, or netbattling, competition. The winner would get a job with a Net Company which was always in the front lines of cybernetic technology... Does that make sense?  
Garlyle nodded.  
"Wow. Oh, sorry. Anyway, me and Falcon trained up a long time. Funny story, actually, I've had Falcon as long as I can remember, I didn't buy him or have him handed down to me or anything, I think...  
"Okay, now I'm just blabbering. Anyway, I wanted to win and get the job so that I could help Acentine with everything... I was feeling really bad every time I heard him muttering about how high the bills had become since I had moved in. You know, right? I just felt really damn guilty about it all...  
"Enough about that. So I went with Falcon and entered the tournament, a few days before I ended up here, but I'll get to that. It was really hard. There was a couple basic, uncustomized navis, but they were operated by stars tactically... Of course, I've always prided myself on what I didn't have, oddly enough. I was using the most basic weaponry available, stuff far below what everybody else had, but I had used it so long that it was becoming more powerful then what they had, simply because me and Falcon knew how to use it...  
"Umm, anyway, I was lucky because I was one of the youngest, so everybody thought I'd be an easy victory! Ha! That was the funniest part of it all, seeing the look on the faces of some people that were twenty or thirty, when I, this no-body who had never appeared in any tournaments before, suddenly whipped them from one arena to the next...  
"Ha ha ha... Okay, sorry, I get carried away some times  
Garlyle smirked, understanding exactly what Kozo had meant by that himself.  
"Anyway, long story shortened once again, I won the tournament in the end. The last battle really put my mind to the test, and seriously, both me and Falcon fainted in sync in exhaustion after the battle was over. But we had one, against a thirty-year-old netbattling genius named Juru, or something like that, and his Navi 'Quint'...  
"Needless to say, I was happy about it, and after returning to Acentine with the good news... gods, if only you had've seen the look on his face when I told him what I'd done and where I'd be working! He thought I was lying...  
"You're blabbering again" Garlyle pointed out.  
"Oh?" Kozo blinked, then smiled. "So I am! Anyway, the next day, I went to work, and found out they were going to do experiments with a new cybernetic system that was supposed to allow real human beings to enter the cyberworld! Could you imagine that?  
"...No, I suppose you can't... but truthfully, I nearly jumped out of my skin with excitement. I would be the first human being in the cyberworld! Seriously! They had tested it already on some animals, and had succeeded, so they were ready to try on humans. There was this whole debate about 'personal risks' and all that other stuff, but I really didn't care. Wasn't like I had anything else to do with my life, and if I passed up that opportunity...  
"So they took me to this small room, where there was a single chair, and they strapped me into it and told me to relax. It was hard, because there were a ton of people watching me and there was the buzz of tons of machines monitoring all kinds of things on my body... my heart rate, my blood pressure, even ones just to test that I was still whole. I had brought a bag with me, just in case, and Falcon was at my side. Apparently, he'd leave my PET once we got in space, meaning I could finally meet him face to face. Perhaps that excited me most.  
"Then, all of a sudden, somebody called out that it was beginning. I braced myself, and slowly I felt something really weird happen.  
"It felt like something was pulling at me. I closed my eyes, and it felt like my body was bending. And everybody around me started freaking out, as I practically twisted into myself. Gods, it hurt like hell! I know I was screaming at that moment.  
"Then, suddenly, it stopped hurting, but I found myself unconscious... and then the next thing I knew, I was here."  
"That's it?" Garlyle asked.  
Kozo nodded.  
"Then you were pulled through dimensions, not through times, I think... but... I wouldn't say you weren't" Garlyle shrugged.  
Kozo looked confused for a moment, then it clued in. "Well... I don't care. All I want is to get home to Acentine..." 


	9. A Cold Night, Soul Calibur

Chapter 9 – A Cold Night...  
  
::The Third Soul Calibur Chapter::  
"I see now" Garlyle smiled at Kozo. "Well, you know what?"  
"What?" Kozo asked.  
"Two things. First off, back where I come from, when people say 'you know what', they don't expect an answer. And second, Kozo..." Garlyle looked at the older boy.  
"What?"  
"Let's travel together," Garlyle smiled. "Maybe, if we both travel together, eventually, we'll reach our homelands..."  
"Thanks, but..." Kozo stood up again. "All I need is my wits and Falcon's advice. I think I'll be fine..." and with that, he turned away from the room and walked off. "I'll find my way home by myself."  
"But, wait!" Garlyle tried to run after him, but he felt Ceres' will holding him back.  
"Garlyle, let him go..."  
  
"But... we both want to get home! Why doesn't he come with me?"  
"Some people just don't like travelling with others... he originally was only staying with Acentine because he needed the home, I believe..."  
"Still, why didn't he just...?"  
"Garlyle..."  
"Alright, I'll drop it" Garlyle sighed, and left the room another way, and saw Kilik, Xianghua, and Maxi, who were all seated around a small table, faking as if they had just started eating. But Garlyle couldn't smell the food, and he knew it had been cold for a while. He realised they had been listening.  
"Hey, you sneaks!" Garlyle growled at them, and Maxi nearly spat. "You've been spying on us, this whole time, haven't you?"  
"Well, can you blame us?" Kilik asked, after swallowing a chunk of meat. It looked good to Garlyle, and it suddenly dawned on him that he was hungry again.  
"No... Is there any there for me?" Garlyle asked.  
The three laughed, before pulling out a chair for Garlyle, and giving him a bit from each of their meals.  
As they finished eating, and Xianghua retrieved the dishes to wash them up in a water basin, Kilik stood up and moved for the doorway.  
"Wait, Kilik!" Garlyle cried over, running towards him. "Where are you going?"  
Kilik paused, and felt Maxi and Xianghua's gazes over him, too. "Nowhere, not tonight... It's getting late..."  
"That's right..." Garlyle looked outside through a window, and could see the stars beginning to rise. "Wait, I wonder... if Kozo's okay."  
"Don't you dare, Garlyle!"  
It was too late. His young mind had formed the idea, and now he was going to see it through. "He hasn't come back... that's it! I'm going to go find him!" and he took off, running, leaving quickly, despite the protests.  
"Kilik, go after him!" Xianghua cried.  
"No, Xianghua... if he really is me, he'll be okay..." Kilik responded quickly, trying to calm her fears.  
"Fine, then I'll go..." Maxi muttered, standing up and grabbing his nunchucks. "This kid is obviously quite important... Kilik, are you coming?"  
"Like I said..." Kilik muttered.  
"You aren't just going to let the a fragment of Soul Edge get away, are you?" Maxi demanded.  
Both Xianghua and Kilik grabbed their weapons. "Damn, forgot about that!" Kilik growled, before taking off behind Maxi.  
"Split up, we have to find him!" Maxi shouted. Instinctively, Kilik headed towards the temple, though he didn't know quite why...  
*****  
Soon after leaving, Garlyle discovered that he had wandered a fair distance. He had gone right past the temple Kilik had mentioned, heading a bit farther, before he heard a few soft shivers.  
He knew the tone of voice. "Kozo? Are you here?"  
The voice started, and became silent. Garlyle followed it. "It's okay, Kozo..."  
"It's you, Garlyle..." Kozo was sitting on the ground, shivering. "I'm fine, don't worry about me."  
"Well, did you seriously think I wouldn't come after you eventually?" Garlyle asked.  
"But... we barely even know each other" Kozo responded, confused. "Why would you be so nice to me?"  
"Because we're both in this strange land, and chances are we'll be going through stranger still" Garlyle responded, smiling. "It's better if we stick together, we're much more likely to survive."  
"You're right" Kozo smiled, as he settled back against the tree he was under. "But don't you get some weird friendship idea in your head, okay?"  
"Alright" Garlyle laughed. Then there was the crackle of a storm overhead.  
"Oh, great..." Garlyle muttered, seeing the moon high above him. It reminded him of that night back home, when he had seen the moon as being blood red. It was said those who did would somehow live important lives that would affect the lives of many, but Garlyle had never quite discovered how he was to...  
"It's getting late, and there's no time to get back to the house..." Garlyle muttered, as he curled up underneath the leaves high above in the trees. Rain began to pour, lightly, but both boys knew that it would get worse shortly. "Maybe we can rest here, tonight..."  
"Yeah" Kozo nodded. "It'll be cold, but..."  
"Kozo-dono," Falcon chimed in, "Are you sure that it's wise to sleep out in the rain without any shelter?"  
"Can't you tell?" Kozo asked. "There's no time to get one up... I don't have the energy left to do it, I haven't eaten all day..."  
Garlyle suddenly felt bad. He wished he could help, but he had no idea how to construct a shelter using what bare minimum he could even see around him, and aside from that it had been a few hours since he had eaten now, too. It was almost midnight. There was nothing he could do. He remained curled up on the ground, shivering, his teeth chattering without him wanting them to.  
Then he felt a coat go over his own shirt, and he felt warmer. Naturally, he pulled it closer, and almost instantly fell asleep afterwards.  
*****  
As Garlyle slept, he could feel the white-haired man taking care of him again, and he shouldn't have been too curious again. However, he felt like there was something wrong, so he shuffled around for a moment, before opening his eyes, to stare up at the man.  
"Why... did you give me that?" Garlyle asked.  
The man remained smiling, and Garlyle felt that peace move over him again, but he fought hard to resist it. He wished that Ceres were here, in his dream, so that maybe he could call upon the dragon's willpower to help stop this strange magic...  
"Please, you have to tell me!" Garlyle cried out.  
The handsome man seemed surprised at Garlyle's force of will, but closed his eyes and smiled wider in response, as if glad to see Garlyle's will kicking in. The calming force was strong this time, but Garlyle had to know.  
"Why'd you give me the fragment of Soul Edge?"  
The man's eyes opened again, and he bit his lip and looked away. Garlyle followed his gaze.  
He saw nothing but a slightly blue haze as far as he could see. It wasn't darkness, but... it was so lonely...  
Who was this man? Was he lonely?  
Perhaps this man simply didn't know how to speak, though Garlyle could have sworn he had heard this man speak to him once before, the first time in the dream...  
What if this wasn't a dream, Garlyle began to wonder. What if this place really did exist, and this man was lonely... maybe he had given Garlyle the fragment of the Soul Edge so that he could come together with Kilik and help him rediscover his past... which led to him meeting Kozo...  
Wait! That was it! "Did you...?" Garlyle began, but the man simply nodded calmly. "Can you...?" Garlyle began again, ready to ask if he could read his mind, but the man nodded again before Garlyle even finished.  
"Then who...?"  
The figure looked as if he might respond, but then suddenly Garlyle was jostled from his sleep by a brilliant flash.  
*****  
"Huh? What?" Garlyle's eyes opened up, to see the sun peeking at them over the horizon.  
Realising quickly he couldn't get back to sleep, Garlyle sat up and felt the coat slide off of him. He became curious, and looked at it.  
Kozo's vest... but that meant...  
He looked over to the boy, who was still asleep, but his upper body, though obviously well-formed and probably resilient to it to an extent, had probably been soaked during the storm. He looked very dirty, and Garlyle felt incredibly guilty.  
"He gave me the vest... so that I wouldn't be cold... why would he...?" Garlyle thought to himself, wondering. As he did, Kozo began to stir, pushing himself off of the ground.  
Garlyle inspected the boy, and noticed a black fang-shaped mark upon his left bicep which made him shake a bit. He threw the coat over towards Kozo, and a few moments later, the boy had it back on.  
"So where will we be going?" Kozo asked.  
Garlyle thought. "Perhaps we should head back" Garlyle responded. "Besides..." he held out the fragment of the Soul Edge. "This needs to be shattered, and..."  
Kozo's eyes narrowed as he saw it. "That... shush, Garlyle!" he held up his hand, demanding silence. Garlyle focused his ears.  
He heard a rustling, and both boys kicked off the ground, pushing backwards, as something rushed towards them.  
As it slowed down, Garlyle could see that it was some kind of strange dinosaur, wielding a short sword in one hand, and a shield in the other. Its skin was green and speckled with red and brown.  
"What the...?" Garlyle immediately reached for the fang around his neck.  
Then another blur, and Garlyle dived down, as it flew over him. It was another of those strange beings.  
"They appear to be Reptilian Humans... Lizardmen, if you will..." Falcon explained.  
"What kind of monstrosity..." Kozo seemed to be totally unarmed. "Garlyle, what's going on?"  
"I don't know! I've never seen anything quite like these!" Garlyle growled. "But I don't think they want to greet us!"  
There was a couple more rustles, and suddenly Garlyle realised they were totally surrounded by the beasts, which had all kinds of different skins.  
The first one let out a harsh roar, or something like it, and all of a sudden, all ten (was that how many Garlyle had counted?) of them were diving for them.  
"Kozo, look out!" Garlyle cried over, but he didn't have time to help his seemingly defenceless ally, as he swung his fang into the eye of one of the Lizardmen. As it howled in pain, blood spurting out, Garlyle drove it in and used it as an anchor to swing around and kick another lizardman hard enough to knock it out for the moment.  
Landing behind the first, Garlyle removed his blade, and ended up taking the beast's eye out with it. He stared at it for a moment. Suddenly, he felt very nauseated, and raised his foot to kick it off. The unorthodox projectile made its mark by smacking into the eye of another Lizardman, temporarily blinding him.  
"Stupid beasts..." Garlyle muttered, but there was still the other two to deal with. He avoided one swing, and drove Ceres' fang straight past the shield and into the heart of one of the beasts, before grabbing its shield from its quickly-loosening hand and using it to block the other one's attack, before slamming it down on the beast's head, crushing its skull.  
As he withdrew the fang, his attention turned back to Kozo, where he knew he'd have to help him, if the boy hadn't already fallen prey...  
And he was surprised to see the Lizardmen already slain around the boy, who was apparently bare-handed, though Garlyle couldn't see his hands. He was busy panting, kneeling on the ground.  
"Woah!" Garlyle walked over, and Kozo turned around.  
For a moment, Garlyle had to step backwards, because Kozo looked as if he might turn on him, a harsh look on his face, and a bloodthirsty look in his eyes. Then, a moment later, his somewhat kind, though proud face returned. As he stood up again, Garlyle could see a pair of long blades extending from gloves upon his wrists.  
"Where did you...?" Garlyle muttered.  
"What do you think I keep in the bag?" Kozo asked, pointing to the now-open bag that he had been carrying that entire time.  
Garlyle smiled. "I was worried that you wouldn't be able to defend yourself!"  
"Please..." Kozo grinned. "Those things had no sense of timing, just a taste for blood. They might have been able to get it, too, if they had've worked together..."  
Garlyle nodded, understanding.  
"Garlyle! You're okay!"  
"Kilik!" Garlyle turned towards the source of the sound, seeing the older man walk towards him.  
"I knew it, the moment I saw the lizardmen... I was worried I'd be too late..." he muttered, as the two boys put away their weapons. "But apparently I didn't need to worry."  
Garlyle and Kozo both smirked in unison.  
"Come on, lets get back... Xianghua's even gone as far as calling in some others to help look for you, they'll be pleased to know you've been found"  
Garlyle smirked. "I suppose you'll want Soul Edge's fragment destroyed?"  
"Yeah" Kilik answered quickly.  
"Alright. Once everybody's together, we'll do it" Garlyle responded, looking over to Kozo as Kilik walked away. "Are you coming?" Garlyle asked.  
Kozo thought for a moment, about what Garlyle had said.  
"Well? Are you coming, or not?" Garlyle demanded.  
"Hmm?" Kozo blinked. "Oh, yeah!" Kozo ran along after him, as Garlyle took off ahead, anxious to get back.  
"He seems nice, Kozo-dono. I know you're afraid to call him it, but I think he already thinks of you as a friend" Falcon observed.  
"Yeah, Falcon..." Kozo smiled. "I know, and..." he didn't finish his thought.  
"So what do you think of him?" Garlyle asked Ceres, mentally.  
"I'm not sure... he changed the moment he fought those things, couldn't you see it in his eyes?"  
"I know," Garlyle responded. "I think he still has a lot of surprises... Good thing we're travelling together!"  
"Err... sure..." Ceres sighed. 


	10. Inner Demons, Soul Calibur

Chapter 10 – Inner Demons  
  
::The Fourth Soul Calibur Chapter::  
As they returned, Garlyle was surprised to see Xianghua and Maxi there already. If Kilik had mentioned anything about others, they obviously weren't there at the moment.  
"Have you come to allow me to finally shatter it?" Xianghua asked.  
Garlyle nodded, and after producing 'it' from his pocket, Xianghua took the fragment from Garlyle's hand, nervous a bit at first, but then seeing that he wasn't pulling it away, she quickly snatched it up before the boy had the chance to change his mind.  
She placed it upon a stone, and drew the Soul Calibur. She took a moment to line up, then swung her blade straight down upon it.  
The fragment shattered as the blade hit it, fragmenting into a hundred tiny pieces that faded into thin air as they floated.  
Everybody held their breath for a few moments.  
"...Is it really gone?" Maxi asked, starting to put away his nunchucks.  
"No..." Xianghua backed up nervously. "I can sense..."  
Kozo growled. "I don't like this..." he whispered. He backed away, and so did everybody else.  
They could feel it. The fragment had been shattered, all right, but somehow the evil energy was still there, just floating.  
"But... how...?" Kilik growled. "That should have finished it off, but the power..."  
"Is growing..." Garlyle finished for her. He could sense it... they had simply cut off an evil's physical bonds, now...  
"Garlyle, that power..."  
"What, Ceres..." Garlyle breathed aloud, but only barely. Kozo caught him muttering out of the corner of his eye, curious.  
"That power, I know it!"  
"Then what the hell is it?" Garlyle stepped back again, drawing Ceres' fang from his chest.  
"You can't fight it with that!"  
"Why?" Garlyle muttered again, and he didn't even noticed that Kozo's gaze was on him, or that the ground seemed to be slightly vibrating, growing hotter...  
"That power... that evil power... It's so familiar... Garlyle, I think..."  
Before Ceres got to finish, however, there was a wave of red light from the evil energy that seemed to sweep through them, washing through everything. Garlyle was sent flying a distance, and his vision blurred in and out of minimal vision and blindness.  
Underneath, the ground felt hard and rough, and it was incredibly hot. But... why? Garlyle slowly lifted his head, pushed himself up, and finally his vision returned.  
He was stunned senseless.  
All around him was an endless expanse of wasteland, fires erupting from cracks in the ground at random, his friends all scattered around him, unconscious.  
"No! What...?" Garlyle stood up.  
"It's behind you!"  
Garlyle dived to the side, rolling and singeing his hands in the process, but he had avoided what he felt a moment later was some kind of 'heat wave'. As he looked again, it was hard on his eyes, but quickly they narrowed, reducing the glare.  
It seemed to be some kind of humanoid beast, a fiend made out of flames and seemingly nothing else, wielding a long, silver-edged blade that was immense in its size, easily twice as tall and probably just as wide as Garlyle was, all held in one hand. Upon it, there was an eyeball that rotated about, before focusing on Garlyle.  
Garlyle drew the fang again, knowing that he'd have to fight this... thing, whatever it was.  
"No, Garlyle, you can't fight it like that!" Ceres cried out desperately.  
"Why?"  
"You can't use a demon's power against itself!" Ceres growled back, as the strange flaming monster dived for Garlyle.  
Garlyle hit the ground and rolled, diving out of the way. As it reached where he had been and swung its sword down, Garlyle took the opportunity and stabbed into what he thought would be the heart.  
Ceres' fang didn't even get close. It was stopped by something Garlyle didn't understand, as nothing had ever stopped it before! As the demon turned to face it, Garlyle saw it begin to crack, in his very eyes.  
Then, suddenly, it shattered with a burst of energy that sent Garlyle tumbling a distance, his body and clothes getting cut by the rolls.  
As he recovered, Garlyle looked at his friends, wishing they would wake up from their slumber. As he looked at Kozo, he realised that Inferno was approaching him...  
"Kozo!" Garlyle stood up quickly, running towards Kozo, with the intent of saving him. But the fang didn't work...  
Wait, had Ceres said something about... 'you can't use a demon's power against itself?' But the fang was Ceres' power, unless... unless...  
"Ceres!" Garlyle shouted at the beast.  
It turned.  
"It... it's you?" Garlyle breathed slowly out, thinking to himself.  
"Yes, Garlyle... And I can't fight it, trapped in your body like I am..."  
"So what am I supposed to do?" Garlyle asked, as the inferno demon slowly marched towards him.  
"You have to be the one to do it!" Ceres shouted at him, mentally.  
"I have to..." Garlyle looked really nervous, but as the flaming Ceres swung the Soul Edge towards Garlyle, the boy knew what he had to do.  
He dived straight down, against the hard floor, and rolled sideways, under the blade, taking off to run alongside the demon, in a desperate attempt to reach Kozo.  
The monster, sensing this move, spun around with the blade, and brought it around as Garlyle was standing again, intent on lopping off his head.  
"Watch out, Garlyle!" Ceres shouted a warning to him, his will pushing Garlyle right over and under the blade, but not before it managed to nick his shoulder.  
There was an intense burning feeling in his shoulder, where he had been cut, and it felt as if there was some evil trying to invade him.  
"Ceres? What... What's going on?"  
He didn't get a response. He couldn't understand, but he felt the pain being suppressed. Was Ceres focusing all of his power on trying to stop whatever it was that the Soul Edge had done to him?  
But with no time to consider this, Garlyle dived again, and smacked Kozo on the head with his fist as he did, crying "Wake up!"  
Kozo did, quite suddenly, quickly realising the same things that Garlyle had when he had awoken. As he quickly drew out and slapped on the katars from his backpack, he faced the demon.  
"What is it...?" Kozo demanded.  
"I don't know... but... I think... this is the Soul Edge..."  
"Such power..." Kozo's voice was shaking a bit, as if he was afraid, but courageously he braced himself, ready to fight.  
The demon seemed to be scanning the two of them, before it nearly buckled over backwards, laughing at their feeble attempts in such a strange voice that both boys were scared stiff by it.  
"It's true..." Garlyle thought to himself. "That laugh... That is the same laugh as Ceres had, back home..."  
*****  
His mind burning, all he could remember were the voices and the sounds... The screaming and rage, the cries of agony...  
"Brother! Where are you?"  
"Wah! Ga... Garlyle? Is that you?"  
"Yes, brother, it'll be okay..."  
*CRASH* he could remember fragments of wood and stone crashing up against his face...  
"What the?"  
"UWAA!"  
"Fools, you can't hide from me!"  
"I... I have to protect my brother"  
"...hm hm hm he he hah hah ha!"  
"I won't let you hurt him!"  
"Garlyle!!"  
*****  
"Hm hm hm he he hah hah ha!" the demon laughed again.  
"I'm not going to lose to another demon like you!" Garlyle raised his empty fists, wilfully, ready to fight.  
The demon raised the sword, laughing at Garlyle's feeble threat.  
*****  
"Foolish human!"  
*SMACK* the feeling came, something like a ton of bricks, hitting him.  
"Ahh!"  
"*Sniff* Garlyle! Garlyle! Please tell me you're okay! Speak to me!" his brother's arms, holding him, shaking him...  
"It's okay... come here, Mek..."  
"Garlyle, I'm so scared..."  
"I won't let go of you, I promise..." the feeling of his brother, shaking, in his arms...  
"Thank you, brother..."  
"Pathetic humans, you make me sick!"  
"Stop! You won't hurt my sons!"  
  
"Hmm? What is this?"  
"Garlyle, Mek, you're okay!"  
"Mother!"  
  
*****  
"I'm not..." Garlyle swallowed. "I'm not going to lose again..." he turned to Kozo, a strange look in his eyes, blurred by the tears from his painful memories. "Kozo... please... stay out of this..."  
"But, Garlyle..."  
"Please, Kozo..." Garlyle asked him. "I know, it sounds crazy, but this is something that I have to do..."  
*****  
"Garlyle, stay back..."  
"Uh huh" nodding dimly...  
"Demon, we're going to seal you back up for another thousand years!"  
  
"You foolish mortals think you can..."  
"Foolish mortals did it once before..."  
"Hmm? What's this?" soft chanting... then it grew louder...  
"Mom! Dad!" Mek's cries, as he tried to escape Garlyle's grasp, but he wouldn't let him go, not now...  
Then the blinding flash, the deafening roar of the demon Ceres...  
*****  
Garlyle dived madly for the demon, unarmed, intent on destroying it with his own hands. Kozo was crying out for him to stop, but Garlyle didn't want to hear him.  
*****  
"Mom! Dad! Where are you?"  
The feeling of letting Mek loose, as Garlyle stood, shakily. He already knew.  
"Where are you? Mom? Dad!? Where'd you go?"  
"Mek..."  
"They're gone, aren't they...?" Mek's hug, shaking so bad with the idea that he nearly collapsed, and Garlyle knelt down too, both of them crying.  
*****  
Garlyle dived underneath the beast as it swung, kicking backwards as he did, striking the inferno's leg. He used it to get away, diving for Xianghua.  
He didn't want her to wake up.  
Instead, he grabbed Xianghua's blade, the Soul Calibur, for himself, holding it in his hands.  
It seemed incredibly light, and already Garlyle could feel his wounds healing. Was this the power of the good blade?  
Garlyle lifted it up with ease, pointing it towards this world's Ceres. He stared the demon right in the... er... eyes. Garlyle could sense the thing's nervousness about approaching, suddenly.  
"This blade's defeated you once, hasn't it?" Garlyle grinned. "It's going to happen once more, I promise you that!"  
Garlyle dived towards the raging inferno, bringing the split-bladed sword straight towards the demon's arm.  
The demon swung the blade around, and the two weapons clashed. A wave of icy cold and fiery hot air shot out from the two blades, making the terrain seem to shift and wave as the blasts passed through it.  
Garlyle saw the demon pull backwards, intent on making another strike, but Garlyle was smaller and much faster. Before the demon even began the reverse swing, he stabbed the weapon straight into the beast's heart.  
It collapsed into the flames, before rising up again a distance between Garlyle and him.  
"Go Garlyle!" Kozo cried out from the side, before he realised what he was doing and caught himself.  
As the demon rose again, it grabbed at the hilt of Soul Edge, then tore it apart straight down the middle. It became two swords, just like the kinds Necrid had used.  
"So, switching weapons? Cheater..." Garlyle smirked, as he held the Soul Calibur in his hands. Slowly, it seemed to be becoming more and more natural for him to be wielding them, as if it was shrinking to fit his hand.  
As the demon charged again, Garlyle bounced backwards nimbly, dodging awkward strike after awkward strike. He was busy, waiting for the perfect opportunity. Then it became apparent, as the inferno swung both weapons at once.  
Garlyle jumped over both, probably higher then he ever had in his life, and brought the Soul Calibur down right in front of the beast's face, cutting a straight line right down it.  
The inferno collapsed again, then re-appeared another distance, closer to Kozo again this time. As it drew out the weapon, this time, it seemed to slam them together, forming one weapon once again. And Garlyle was surprised by the result.  
The weapon it had formed looked exactly like the fang Garlyle had wielded did, with the eye facing him on one side.  
"This is twisted..." Garlyle muttered, preparing to face the weapon. He looked at his own blade.  
Suddenly, though, it became apparent to him that his own weapon had shortened. It was exactly the length that the fang had been, and since that had been Garlyle's favourite weapon... had the Soul Calibur adjusted itself to help Garlyle? No way...  
With that, Garlyle got up and dived towards the inferno.  
It was much, much quicker this time, avoiding Garlyle's attack exactly as the boy would have, slashing in counter.  
Garlyle barely realised this in time, and blocked it, before kicking toward the beast's head. It seemed to have been expecting this, and raised a hand to knock his leg away, causing Garlyle to tumble backwards.  
He barely blocked the next few stabs by rolling just in time, and parrying the demon's weapon away every time he tried to stab Garlyle with it.  
"He moves, just like me!" Garlyle muttered.  
"Because he has copied your abilities!" Ceres realised, suddenly returning. "Soul Calibur has healed your wounds, but... listen, anyway, there's something we need to do."  
"What?" Garlyle demanded, knocking another attack away, as he continued to back up.  
"Let me take over!" Ceres demanded. "I can beat it!"  
"No, I'll beat this thing on my own!" Garlyle responded, kicking up strongly with focused energy, causing the demon to fly up into the air.  
As it came down, it poised its dagger to stab straight into Garlyle's skull.  
Instead, Garlyle raised the palm of his hand above his face, and raised his other hand with the Soul Calibur pointed straight towards the demon's face.  
He felt the accursed blade shoot right through his hand, and he screamed in pain. But he also knew he had scored again on the demon.  
Ceres' presence floated away in his mind, occupied again with trying to suppress the evil feeling Garlyle was receiving from his open wound. The boy was glad for Ceres' help...  
Then, finally, he felt the flames and the Soul Edge disappear again. He stood up, ready to face whatever was thrown.  
The flames were gathering right in front of Kozo, this time, and the boy felt it impossible now to simply watch from the sidelines.  
"Die, you miserable fiend!"  
Kozo grabbed his two blades, and lodged them into the flames as they formed.  
The demon couldn't reform with this barrier in their way, and it howled like crazy, until, finally, the flames died out, and with it, it took the katars from Kozo's gloves.  
"Your blades..." Garlyle looked at Kozo.  
"They don't matter... we've won, Garlyle..." Kozo smiled. "I shouldn't have under-estimated you..."  
"I agree, that was excellent, Garlyle-kun" Falcon agreed from Kozo's side. It occurred to Garlyle that if that... err... thing didn't speak at all, he'd probably forget he was there.  
It seemed to be rippling, and so did the air around them. But they could both feel a familiar pull tugging at them...  
Then it became stronger, and Garlyle dropped the Soul Calibur, as in one smooth motion, he, Kozo, and the hellish lands disappeared, leaving only Maxi, Kilik, and Xianghua.  
"What...?" Xianghua woke up first, to see the Soul Calibur lying on the ground. Surprised by something, she picked it up, and it returned to its full length.  
"What's the matter, Xianghua?" Maxi asked.  
"Nothing, but..." Xianghua looked at it. "The energy's gone, and so are Garlyle and Kozo... and I just had the strangest dream, and they were fighting Inferno..."  
"I had that same dream" Kilik woke up groggily, using his staff to stand up.  
"Me too..." Maxi added. "So, they're gone?"  
"It's a shame..." Kilik muttered, sitting down, looking depressed. "But..."  
  
"But what?" Maxi inquired, as the two moved towards him, he stood up again.  
"I can't stay here, after all he's told me..." Kilik looked up towards the sky. "I'm leaving."  
"Where to? For how long?" Xianghua asked.  
"I don't know..." Kilik shook his head. "I'm leaving... to find out who my parents were... to see if my family is still alive..." and with that, he slowly started away.  
"Kilik, wait!" Maxi called over to him, making him stop.  
"I know, this is good-bye..." Kilik muttered. "But I don't like long farewells..."  
"No, Kilik..." Maxi ran over to his side. "I'm coming with you."  
"But what about you and Xianghua?" Kilik asked. "I thought you..."  
"You don't think we'd both let you do this alone, would you?" Xianghua approached him, replacing the Soul Calibur in its scabbard.  
"G... Guys..." Kilik's face lit up. "You sure?"  
"Of course" they both nodded.  
And with that, they set off for faraway lands... 


	11. Back Home?, Bloodlines

Chapter 11 – Back Home???  
  
::The Second Bloodlines Chapter::  
As Garlyle regained consciousness, he could hear a familiar hustle and bustle...  
It was too familiar.  
"No..." Garlyle sat up, and saw there was a crowd of people circled around them, staring at them. They were both upon the top ledge of a round fountain that was in front of a large palace. Thankfully they were both dry, somewhat.  
He looked around quickly, and spotted Kozo near him. Quickly, he rolled over and shook the boy, to get him to wake up.  
"Huh? We're here already?" Kozo pushed himself up into a sitting position.  
Garlyle stared towards the palace. "I think... No, it's can't be..."  
"What?" Kozo asked.  
"That palace... that is... that is..." Garlyle pointed at it, jumping down. People jumped backwards. They weren't too scared of these two young children, but they were still looking at them curiously...  
"Those two are the ones?" Garlyle could hear the murmurs.  
"Yeah, the ones that fell from the sky..."  
"I can't believe it! I wonder why the lord hasn't come to them yet..."  
"Think they're aliens?"  
Garlyle looked around, seeing each face, and the younger ones jumped back as he did. Garlyle smiled a bit. It felt odd, being known so well, and feared...  
"So," he thought to himself, "Is this the kind of treatment a demon'd get?"  
"I'd say that's what they think you are, Garlyle, but you should know that anything that falls from the sky here is treated with... fear..."  
"What do you mean...?" Garlyle looked around, swearing he could recognize things. Then it came to him. "No, way!"  
He grabbed Kozo and pulled him close. "Kozo, I can't believe it! This is my home!"  
  
"Really?" Kozo looked at it. "Then how come nobody knows you?"  
"Let's see..." Garlyle looked around, before approaching the people. "Umm..." he spoke loudly, and the crowd seemed to hush. "Hello..."  
He wasn't sure quite what to say, but it was evident people were waiting for his words.  
"Is this... Avel?" he asked.  
There were nods among the crowds, as well as refreshed murmurs.  
"I knew it!" Garlyle whispered to Kozo again. "This is my homeland! But... it doesn't feel quite right..."  
He looked around again. Then an idea dawned on him. "What year is it?"  
One young man wearing red armor, with brown hair and brown eyes like Garlyle's, slowly walked towards him. His skin seemed pale, and his hair seemed like it was starting to fade away into the grey of age, though he didn't look anything past 12.  
"It's the year five hundred fifty since the Waves..." the man responded. "Why do you ask?"  
Garlyle's eyes opened in shock. "I knew it! This... this can't be right!"  
"No, it's right" Ceres spoke to him, mentally. "Garlyle, we've travelled back 450 years in the past! This year... this is the reign of Lord Savarius..."  
"In... Incredible!" Garlyle gaped, interrupting Ceres' thought as he looked around. "Then..." he approached the one courageous young knight, as the rest of the crowd backed away. "Can you help us?"  
Kozo walked up beside Garlyle, looking down at the shorter boy. He remained silent, for unknown reasons.  
The man smiled. "What do you need, children of the sky?"  
Garlyle had to force back the urge to laugh, and he could feel that Kozo felt the same way. After calming down, Garlyle answered him. "Please, take me to..."  
Whatever he was going to say, was stopped.  
"Halt, intruders!"  
  
The entire crowd seemed to scramble away, and even the knight who looked regal before scurried off like a rodent.  
"What the...?" Garlyle looked around.  
"Didn't you hear me? These years were the reign of Lord Savarius Del Phied! The Dark Lord of Avel's History, the second most feared man in the history of Avel!" Ceres shouted at him, mentally.  
Garlyle froze. His voice froze.  
"Kozo, don't move a muscle..." he whispered to his companion, who nodded in return.  
In a few moments, they were surrounded by regal-looking soldiers who had come from around the streets, all of them wearing black capes to signify their allegiance. "Identify yourselves, strangely clothed demons!" one of them shouted.  
"We... We're..." Garlyle tried to think of what to say. "We're visitors from afar..."  
"That's enough! Men, back away, they are dangerous!"  
The voice was harsh, and Garlyle and Kozo's bodies froze involuntarily. They couldn't move an inch. Even Falcon, who wasn't exactly alive, seemed to freeze.  
Garlyle saw him approaching, from the main gates, slowly coming into view.  
His face was hidden under his long black bangs, his body hidden in a long black robe, though there was the sounds of metal as he walked. Something about him scared Garlyle, inherently, even though he couldn't see the man underneath.  
"C... Ceres... It's him... I know from the paintings..." Garlyle thought to his inner demon.  
Ceres couldn't respond. Even Garlyle could sense the demon's fear.  
"Now, speak, fiends, who are you?" the man demanded.  
Garlyle felt the will to obey. "We're travellers, trying to find our way back ho..." he began.  
"Silence! That is a lie..." he stepped forward again, and Garlyle found himself unable to move again, as he stepped closer. He stepped in front of Garlyle, looking down at him. Garlyle could see the famous 'pitch- black' eyes staring at him from underneath the hair.  
If he could remember right, some young child eventually turned out to be his downfall, having revealed the man as a demon...  
But when would that be? Garlyle had never been good with history...  
"Who are you really?" a hand grabbed at Garlyle's neck, lost within the sleeves, and it lifted him up, raising him to eye level.  
Instantly, Garlyle grabbed at the hand and tried to pry it off, kicking. With his other hand, Savarius grabbed Garlyle's two feet in turn, and with the touches Garlyle's legs became numb.  
"I can sense it inside of both of you... demonic powers..." Savarius dropped Garlyle down to the ground, and the younger boy seemed to faint. He walked slowly towards Kozo. "Am I correct?"  
Kozo was uncertain about this man, but could sense the evil within him. He didn't even flinch, though his insides were shaking. Garlyle had been scared of this man, and Kozo knew why. He could see some kind of strange black aura around him...  
"Well, answer me!" the man's hand dived for Kozo's neck again.  
Kozo's reflexes kicked in, as he grabbed the lord's wrist and brought it around behind, springing off of it and twisting around, raising his leg up high to smash the man's skull.  
As he turned, Kozo's kick was stopped by some unusual, invisible force. It simply froze, in mid-air, as he grabbed it with one hand.  
A shock ran through Kozo in that moment, one that rendered him instantly unconscious, making him drop to the floor.  
"Kozo-dono!" Falcon cried. "Tell me you're okay!"  
There was no response.  
*****  
"Garlyle, you have to wake up! Please, wake up!"  
Ceres' urgent voice forced him to obey. Slowly, Garlyle tried to open his eyes and raise his head.  
A strong, meaty hand held his head down against a hard wood surface. Garlyle gulped, trying to stretch.  
His wrists were bound together, as were his ankles. He was kneeling down, as far as he could tell.  
His eyes shifted to search along the crowd in front of him, as he wondered if he were on display or something. At the edge of his vision, he forced his head to turn, and he saw Kozo beside him, similarly bound, just barely waking up as well.  
Then Garlyle recognised where they were.  
This was... no way! The executioner's grounds? But...  
"Ladies and Gentlemen of Avel..."  
Savarius' voice. Garlyle felt the hand move away, but then something clapped over the back of his neck, clamping it right in place. He heard footsteps move away.  
"Kozo, we have to get out of here!" Garlyle said, just loud enough for Kozo to hear over the roaring of the crowd.  
"You've all come because you wish to see that I can protect you from demons such as these, right?"  
There was a roar of agreement from the crowd.  
"What's going on?" Kozo asked.  
"We're going to be killed!" Garlyle growled.  
"What?"  
"Executed! They're going to lop off our heads!" Garlyle answered, frantically.  
"No... No!" Kozo shook. "Falcon, is this true?"  
"Yes, Kozo-dono... I caught every word while you're unconscious. This lord thinks you two are demons, and that you must be properly dealt with!"  
"We're not demons!" Kozo hissed out, loudly.  
There was the crack of a whip, and Kozo felt a powerful sting on his back. Garlyle couldn't see it, but he heard it, and Kozo's shout of pain afterwards.  
"Silence, pathetic monster!" Lord Del Phied demanded. "It is not in your place to speak, judgement has been passed!"  
  
"We haven't even been put on trial! How can you say..." Kozo demanded angrily, and Garlyle braced himself for the sound again. The whip struck again, and Kozo gritted his teeth so hard that they looked as if they would shatter with any more pressure.  
"Trial! Hah! Fiends like yourself deserve no trial!" Savarius growled. "I will hear no more of these pathetic cries. Executioners, off with their heads!"  
The crowd roared so loudly, that anything Garlyle tried to cry over to Kozo was lost in the general roar.  
Kozo looked around wildly, as if trying to find a way to escape. He could hear Falcon's words only. "Kozo, you have to do it!"  
"But I'm afraid, what if..."  
"You'd rather die?"  
That set his mind. He looked at Garlyle, then seemed to twist his head. Garlyle could see the other Executioner going over Kozo's head, raising his axe, and he could see the shadow of the other one coming up behind him.  
"Damn, I'm not going to die today..." Garlyle growled.  
Then he understood. Just as he could see the axe's shadow swinging down towards his own, he rolled sideways with all of his might, calling on his magic and the power of Ceres.  
He broke straight through the wood with the roll, even succeeding in slamming into the bulky man and sending him crashing down into the crowd.  
Meanwhile, Kozo focused hard. "Please, shadows... help me now..."  
His body was enveloped in a black haze, and he felt the bonds loosen around him. He planted his hands on the ground and pushed straight upwards and to the side, his neck pushing straight through the wood clasp as if it was butter.  
There was a gasp, and then another. Garlyle turned to face Kozo, to see what had happened. He gasped, too.  
Kozo was standing in front of the executioner, and Garlyle could detect a faint dark aura. He swore that through the arm of the boy's vest, he could see the fang mark on his arm glowing...  
"Be careful!" he saw the Executioner raise his axe from the failed attack, ready to swing again.  
"Don't worry about me" Kozo laughed, darkly, and Garlyle was shocked by what kind of power he seemed to radiate. He grabbed the axe's blade with one hand, and pressed one hand up to the man's face.  
Garlyle forced his head away a moment later, as flames erupted in such heat that the executioner's head was burnt right off of his shoulders.  
"Kozo, how did you just..." Garlyle panted. He could have sworn, that Kozo had no magic in him, but now...  
"Demons!" Lord Savarius moved quickly towards them, waving his hand in front of him as if casting a spell.  
"Ceres, what kind of power is it that Kozo has?"  
"It's a power so ancient... Garlyle, these two men both have power at least equal to mine!"  
"W... WHAT?" Garlyle gaped in amazement.  
"I don't even think Kozo is really human!"  
But Garlyle didn't have time to think on this, as Savarius raised his hand to face the two boys.  
With one command, a blast of icy air shot from his palm, a large crescent wave that froze things as it passed. People hurried away out of sheer need.  
"Flames!" Garlyle planted his hand down on the ground.  
"Let me help, you'll need my power!"  
"Come to me! Pheonix Flight!" Garlyle finished, scooping upwards with his balled fist. A huge bird-shaped flame rose in front of him, heating the air so much that the two boys were almost burned by it. Some of the planks below caught on fire. He rose into the air with it, as the heat from the attack more than negated his opponent's magic.  
Here, he was at home, and could tap into his own powers, all the secrets of high-level magic his father had told him as he was growing up...  
Finally, as Garlyle stopped moving in the air, he remained floating. The phoenix seemed to have taken flight behind him, flapping its burning wings behind him.  
"Incredible, ha ha!" Savarius laughed. "This will make a most interesting battle! Demons, I await your attacks, as it has been long since anybody has challenged me with power that begins to come close to my own!" 


	12. Descendants, Bloodlines

Chapter 12 – Descendants  
  
::The Third Bloodlines Chapter::  
"Alright, then. Let's do this!"  
With that, Garlyle dived towards his opponent, using the power of the Pheonix's wings to dive down towards his opponent.  
The Dark Lord swept his hand upwards, and the planks of the executioner's stage lifted, becoming a wall in front of him. Garlyle stopped short, just in time to avoid crashing.  
He then felt Kozo's shadow go right over him, as he jumped high into the air, springing over the wall.  
"He..." Savarius laughed.  
"Hey, idiot!" Kozo cried, as he flew down towards the evil man, his kick seeming to be glowing with black energy.  
"What?" Savarius lifted his hands fast, but they still remained cloaked by his long robe. He grabbed at Kozo's feet, catching them.  
A burst of black energy shot out of Kozo's feet, sending a shockwave through the man's body, as his magic stopped working. Garlyle could see the collision, then he could see both men going flying, both having used a lot of energy in that single move.  
"Kozo... has that kind of power?" Ceres gaped. "Garlyle, with his help, I think we can do this!"  
  
"But..." there was something nagging at Garlyle. This was his past, right?  
"Wait, Kozo" Garlyle cried over. "We can't kill him!"  
"Why not?" Kozo growled.  
"Listen, this is... my... you know... if we kill him, we risk altering history. I might never be born!"  
Kozo shifted his glance towards Garlyle, and his eyes were pitch black. Garlyle stepped back, in reflex.  
"Are you ignoring me?" Lord Savarius stood up, raising his palms. "Symbols, Restoration!"  
He slammed his hand onto his chest, and instantly any damage he had suffered was gone.  
He lifted up his fists again, chanting strange words under his breath.  
Garlyle recognized the rhyme.  
"No! No!" He grabbed Kozo by the back of the neck, pulling him back and up with him. "We have to get out of here!"  
  
"Ex-e-cu-tion!" Savarius raised his palms to face Kozo and Garlyle. "I'll still kill you, demons!"  
Garlyle saw them coming, spirits with scythes, death itself, coming for them. One of the most powerful spells known in the entire continent...  
Savarius was, after all, the one who had designed it, the only one to have perfected it...  
"What the...?" Kozo faced them, growling. "Why are we running?"  
"They'll kill us if they touch us!" Garlyle cried, moving as fast as he could through the skies, over the city. He could feel the magic of the Pheonix starting to fade... This was bad!  
"Please, Ceres..." Garlyle spoke to himself. "You have to do something!"  
"It's my power that's keeping Pheonix going! I can't split off even a fraction of my focus!"  
Indeed, even as he was saying it, Garlyle felt the power of the wings fading. He mentally told Ceres not to worry, and they restrengthened somewhat. It was tough, carrying Kozo with him...  
"I know they'll kill us..." Kozo smiled, looking grimly at the spectres. "But they can't"  
"Why?"  
"Just trust me!" Kozo cried out. "Set us down!"  
  
Garlyle shook, but realised that just perhaps Kozo understood. Besides, there was no other option. Quickly, in the middle of a barely crowded street, Garlyle set him down and landed beside him. The street didn't remain crowded for lone, except for a single man who remained watching them, the same one who had spoken before...  
"Death spirits, I see you..." Kozo grinned. "Standing there, threateningly, as if you expect you can harm the life of this vessel..."  
Garlyle blinked. What had Kozo just said? The spirits froze in mid- motion, floating there, seemingly nervous. There was some kind of strange force behind his words, his voice shifting and ringing in Garlyle's head  
"You heard me... You know who I am" it was definitely not Kozo speaking. "Be gone!"  
And with a sweep of his hand, the black aura trailing behind his hand, the spirits dissipated.  
"Just like that... Kozo..." Garlyle was in shock, and he slowly stepped towards him.  
Kozo spun, staring at Garlyle. The younger, smaller boy froze.  
His teeth had become fangs, a bloodthirsty dangerous look in his black eyes, the fang symbol upon his arm burning.  
"And did you think you would be safe...?" Kozo slowly advanced on Garlyle, who backed up in sync.  
"Kozo-dono, you have to stop!" Falcon cried, frantically, from his side. "Don't let it take you over completely again!"  
"Ceres, what's going on?" Garlyle backed up quicker.  
"Garlyle, this power is so familiar, but I can't name it! I know though, we can't fight it, but maybe Kozo can come back, and quell it... It's not him in control right now, but maybe if we can get him in control again..."  
Garlyle nodded. "Kozo, you have to stop!"  
  
"Chikara can't hear you right now..." the voice laughed. "And now that I'm back in con..."  
It stopped short. Kozo had responded from inside! His soul was trying to get back in control.  
"Get me close, Garlyle! NOW!"  
Garlyle was pushed by Ceres' invisible forces, and he ran straight towards Kozo, quickly grabbing onto his shoulders.  
He felt Ceres' energy begin to flow through him, connecting with the boy, and slowly the human look returned to Kozo. Finally, Ceres' power returned, and Garlyle backed off, as Kozo's eyes returned to their natural shade.  
He stood, shaking for a few moments, before he collapsed backwards.  
"Ceres, what was that...? What had my friend?" he cried out to the demon within himself.  
"...Garlyle, I can't believe it... but that..."  
"What?"  
"No, I can't tell you."  
"Come on! You have to..."  
"If you understood, then you'd tell him, and he can't find out... He can never find out... His not knowing about it is the one thing that's keeping him..."  
"...What?"  
There was no response. Garlyle just sat in silence, before lifting the boy up. "This kid's thin, but he's pretty heavy..."  
"Let me help."  
There was that red-armoured man! Garlyle smiled. "Who are you?" he asked.  
"My name is Lee Wilds" he smiled.  
W... Wilds?  
Had he just heard that right?  
Garlyle forced himself to contain his shock, because he had no idea what that could mean. Might he have just changed his own history? This was his ancestor, the father of...  
That clued him in! This man's son, Andrew Wilds was the one who had shown Savarius' true form to Avel, who had unmasked him to be a demon, and created such an uprising in the population that their combined powers completely overwhelmed the Dark Lord, and ever since there had been relative peace among the monarchy of the last human city, Avel.  
"Well, are you going to help me, or not?" Lee demanded.  
"Ye... Yes!" Garlyle responded quickly, lifting up Kozo's unconscious body by the head, and they carried him towards one of the houses on the streets.  
*****  
Kozo slowly opened his eyes.  
He saw standing above him, holding him, a young red-haired man whom he recognised instantly.  
"Acentine!" Kozo reached up and hugged him around the neck, resting his forehead on the man's shoulder. "I was so scared... There were all these... monsters... and demons... and this dark lord... and I felt it again... Acentine..."  
Then reality shifted back into view.  
"He's delusional..." there was an unfamiliar voice.  
Kozo could see that he was, in truth, propped up against the wall, and it was Garlyle whom he had put his hands around. Quickly he retracted them. "Ga... Garlyle!"  
  
"You don't need to say anything, some weird stuff happened..." Garlyle smiled at him. "Don't worry, we're okay now."  
"Garlyle... did I hurt you? Please tell me I didn't..."  
Garlyle shook his head. "No, it's fine, nobody was hurt, really..."  
Kozo smiled a bit, but he hung his head as if in shame. "Don't ever let me do that again..."  
  
"Why?" Garlyle asked.  
"I can't tell you, but I think you saw for yourself..." Kozo responded, before looking up at the man behind him. "Where are we now?"  
"Still in Avel..." Garlyle bent down. "That man is Lee Wilds..."  
Kozo's eyes shifted to check Garlyle's own. "Then he's..."  
Garlyle nodded, and put a finger to his lips, signifying silence. Kozo understood very quickly what he meant.  
"Umm... thank you..." Kozo smiled up at the man, looking at him.  
"No problem," Lee responded. "Stay for a while. Any man who can stand up and fight strong against the powers of Lord Dull Food over there is a good man... or... boy... in my view."  
Garlyle smiled. "Thank you... Umm... Lee..."  
"Yes?"  
"This is going to sound crazy, but you have a son, don't you?"  
"Yeah, he's almost your age. Why?"  
"I need to meet him" Garlyle responded, looking at him. "This is important."  
"Umm... alright" Lee smiled. "I don't think you're a demon or anything, I doubt you'll do anything..."  
Garlyle slowly followed Lee, and Kozo walked behind him, silent as usual, as they came into another room of the house.  
There, studying a book softly in the light of a candle, was a young boy with snow white hair and the purest eyes that reflected all of the colours of the autumn. He turned to face Garlyle, clad merely in a silken red shirt and blue pants.  
Garlyle recognised him immediately, and even though he realised quickly that it would be a mistake, he knelt down on one knee and bowed.  
"What...?" all three looked at him.  
"You are Andrew Wilds, correct?" Garlyle looked up at him. This was the boy whose name would make the Wilds famous, whose knowledge would make them the most powerful magicians in Avel, the man who was responsible for making them nobility among commoners, who even in the richest man inspired a vision of a better world.  
This was the kind of child heroes were grown from.  
"Yes... why?" he looked at Garlyle.  
"Someday, you will understand, a day when many will bow to you... I wish to help you, boy, because you are the only one who can do what I believe I was sent here to help you do."  
"What's that?" the boy asked.  
"I'm here to help you understand the powers of magic, and eventually be the one who stands up to and defeats the Dark Lord, in not even a year's time."  
Andrew and Lee both exchanged, glances. Lee looked as if he had just heard an insane man speak, but Andrew seemed quite interested. They looked back.  
"Interesting..." Andrew hopped off of his chair. "Show me, then, if there is proof to your claims..." 


	13. Andrew Wilds, Bloodlines

Chapter 13 – Andrew Wilds  
::The Fourth Bloodlines Chapter::  
Garlyle stood up again, feeling odd. "I would ask you to step outside, so I could test how strong you already are, but that would be revealing our locations to enemy..."  
"Of course" Andrew smiled. "I understand... but I can't fight!"  
  
"We'll have to see about that" Garlyle grinned. Then, without warning, he shot a fist towards Andrew's face.  
The boy blinked, just standing there, seemingly not reacting fast enough. Garlyle's fist reached his skull...  
And stopped, not even touching him.  
"You didn't move to block?" Garlyle asked.  
"I knew you wouldn't hit me" Andrew smirked. "I could... sense it..."  
"Well, then..." Garlyle returned to his original stance. "I won't stop this time, okay? Do your worst!"  
And with that, even faster than before, Garlyle punched towards Andrew's face.  
Andrew just smiled, as Garlyle stopped again.  
"What...? How did you know?"  
"Are you here simply to joke?" Andrew smiled. "What is your name, anyway?"  
"Garlyle W..." Garlyle almost gave his last name, but froze his mouth shut. "Just Garlyle."  
"Well, 'Just Garlyle'," Andrew laughed, "If you really are here to train me, show me."  
Garlyle nodded. He was afraid of hurting the child, but obviously this boy was better off then he had originally thought... What were all those books that he had been reading, anyway? Had they been combat books, teaching him these kinds of things?  
Garlyle returned to his fighting stance, and then, to try and throw off Andrew, he punched with his other hand. This time, he wasn't going to stop.  
Andrew, in return, punched straight upwards with his matching arm, knocking Garlyle's arm up and backwards a bit, before bringing his other around to press on Garlyle's chest, lightly.  
"What...?" Garlyle blinked. He hadn't expected that. In fact, it looked as if he could learn a couple things...  
Wait, that couldn't be right! This boy couldn't have done that! Garlyle simply hadn't tried enough.  
And then, without warning to anyone in the room, Garlyle began to strike rapidly, first alternating his fists, then he began to attack with them in no set pattern.  
Quickly recognising the pattern, Andrew simply dodged left and right, shifting back and forth smoothly, but when Garlyle switched out of it, the attack surprised the boy and punched him straight on the nose, almost breaking it.  
"Oh, I think I overdid it..." Garlyle gaped, stepping backwards. "Sorry!"  
"No, I would have expected you to knock me unconscious..." Andrew grinned. "I should have expected it. But I can sense... you've got a lot you can teach me, and somehow I think I already understand the basis of your attacks, in theory..."  
Garlyle got a chance to glimpse the book he had been reading, as Andrew turned and put it away. Printed along the side, he could see the title 'The Art of Unarmed Combat'. Standard issue, but it was still studied in his day by martial artists, written in the early years of Avelian History by a master brawler named Johka. Other similar titles about fighting and tactics were lined up there.  
"Please, father..." Andrew returned to face his father. "The sun is going down. Will you allow these two to stay here?"  
Lee nodded, understanding totally. "If you two are truly sent here as you claim to be," Kozo seemed as if he might protest but didn't, "then I welcome you here..."  
Garlyle and Kozo both smiled.  
"Thank you very much, Lee-san" Falcon answered from Kozo's belt, startling Lee and Andrew.  
"How interesting... a miniature person trapped in a box!" Andrew knelt down beside Kozo, inspecting the screen on it. "He also appears to be sideways!"  
"It's not my fault!" Falcon responded. "But I suppose it is beyond your intellect to comprehend my origins."  
"Mechanical, right?" Andrew grinned.  
"How did you know?"  
"Don't think we don't have simple machines in this world, silly! I mean, we have the Printing Press..." he smiled. "You're travellers, after all, probably you came from an undiscovered part of the continent where such things exist..."  
"Umm... yeah!" Kozo and Falcon both responded in sync.  
"I wish we had a guest bedroom, but we only have the two bedrooms..."  
"I can work with just a blanket," Kozo offered, not wanting to make too much of a fuss. He realised that he might end up staying there for a while, despite his wishes to get back home to Acentine...  
On the other hand, this new strange dimension was something brand new to Kozo, a world unlike anything he had ever seen, a medieval fantasy world like something out of a video game. And this place really existed! He wasn't just dreaming!  
With that, he contented himself with the knowledge that here, he'd discover things that he'd never possibly learn back in his home world... Though he'd miss Acentine, perhaps he'd get by... And besides, this 'Lee' fellow was handsome, he'd have to get to know him better...  
No, he knew that it was better to remain faithful to the one that he really did love, even if there wasn't much chance they'd ever get to see him again... he owed Acentine that much, after all...  
Garlyle looked around, shrugging. "I... I can sleep on a floor, I... I used to sleep in the streets..."  
"Oh, you poor child, having had to do that!" Lee growled. "Take my bed, I'll sleep in the living room, I'll survive..."  
Garlyle shook his head. "No, I insist. You stay as you are..."  
"Well, if you do insist..." Lee replied. "Make yourselves at home, here..." he looked out a window. "The moon will be rising shortly..."  
Garlyle's mind flashed with an idea. "Umm... Andrew..."  
"Yeah?" he perked up, his seasonal eyes shining.  
"I... I want to see something, come with me..."  
He led the boy outside, and looking around quickly, he discovered he could climb up onto the wooden roof of the house via a pile of stacked boxes on an adjacent house, then making a small jump. Andrew followed him, and they laid themselves out upon the rooftop.  
"Why'd you call me out here?" Andrew asked.  
Garlyle smiled. "I want you to look at the moon, tonight... Tell me what you see."  
"A great big bluish white thing with a bunch of craters, like every night" Andrew replied.  
"It's not even up yet..." Garlyle smiled.  
"Well, it's going to happen."  
"Just humour me, on this, okay?" Garlyle asked.  
"A... Alright, Garlyle, if you say so."  
A few minutes later, the sun dropped out of sight behind them.  
And then the moon began to rise. Garlyle was always nervous whenever he saw it, because it reminded him of the night that Ceres had attacked... As he fell asleep that night, he had seen it for a few moments, hanging high above the sky. It was the normal, for him...  
But for Andrew, now, tonight would be the night that determined if Garlyle was right in his hunch... History had forgotten the name of Andrew's tutor...  
Andrew seemed to freeze.  
"What do you see?" Garlyle asked, a few minutes later. "I see the moon, don't you?"  
"Umm... yeah... it... looks normal..." Andrew responded, standing up to get down. "Why'd you think it'd... look any different?"  
Garlyle sensed the hesitance in his voice. "Andrew, you're lying, aren't you?" suddenly, he felt very adult and mature, since he knew this child's great future was in his hands...  
"Err..." Andrew sat back down again, and looked at it again, shaking his head as if he didn't believe it. "No... I'm not... I'm sorry, Garlyle, I was lying..."  
"You see the Red Moon, don't you?"  
"...Yes..." Andrew was almost shaking, as if afraid. "That means... Garlyle, you came today... am I really destined to be a hero?"  
"More than that..." Garlyle smiled. "Some day, Andrew... Some day what you do now will be engraved forever in the history of Avel, along with Sir Lionblade..."  
"Really...?" Andrew smiled. "Then I guess I'll have to train hard with you two, right?"  
"Yeah" Garlyle nodded. Outside of the mature demeanour he had shown the two of them upon their first meeting, Andrew really was just a kid. He seemed nervous to accept his fate, but...  
"But, this seems so sudden..."  
  
"Everything happens suddenly. The turning points of are lives are constant, and we have to change with them to reach the next one..." Garlyle spoke aloud, philosophically.  
"You're right..." Andrew stood up. "Thank you, sensei."  
"S... Sensei?" Garlyle blabbered. "Oh, sure, now I feel really old! Thanks a lot!"  
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend you!" Andrew replied.  
"Just call me Garlyle, okay, kid? My other apprentice just called me it," he said, becoming sentimental at the thought of Taka... It had only been a few waking days since he had seen Taka killed... but...  
"Other apprentice?"  
"It doesn't matter. Go to bed" Garlyle spoke, and then he realised that he was really beginning to sound like an adult. He didn't really want that, he thought, as Andrew shuffled off. He remained lying on the roof for a while.  
"Garlyle, it appears you've found your purpose in life..."  
"I still can't believe, that I'm the one who teaches Andrew..."  
"Why not? You've grown a lot, Garlyle, over the two years that I've known you. You're not just this annoying innocent, happy, bouncy, revoltingly cute kid anymore."  
"I haven't had the time to be."  
"You're growing up fast..."  
"It's not really what I want, though. I... I'm losing my childhood, years that I should be spending enjoying freedom, but instead..."  
"I know how you feel?"  
"How?"  
"... err... Have you forgotten that I can read your mind and emotions? Garlyle..."  
Garlyle sensed that it wasn't the answer he would have given right away, but he didn't question it. Instead, he simply headed inside of the house again, to see Kozo already halfway asleep, curled up in a blanket.  
"Sorry to drag you into all of this" Garlyle responded grimly, as he yawned. "I really am..."  
"Don't worry about it," Kozo responded. Obviously he wasn't as asleep as he looked, because he still sounded totally awake. "Besides, in the end, this will probably end up helping me figure out myself..."  
"Yeah? You don't know about yourself?"  
"I told you. I can't remember my past before I turned eleven. It's a curse, not having those youthful memories, at least you have some... you still have you younger years."  
"Not anymore, I don't" Garlyle responded. "I... I'm losing them too fast..."  
"What did happen to you, anyway? There's a lot I don't understand... Who is Ceres?"  
Garlyle froze. "Then, you heard?"  
"Of course I did..." Kozo responded. "After having travelled with you for so long, how could I not have noticed?"  
Garlyle shook. "Alright, I'll tell you, about my past..."  
"I grew up in this world... four hundred and fifty years from this particular time... My parents were both among the richest nobles in the city, and that's saying something. My mother was the best dancer in the entire city, able to cast magic through it, and she was an excellent magical researcher as well. My father was a stern man, a warrior, though he too did more than just dabble in the arts of symboling to create magic. It was like a match made in heaven, I hear, the classic story of romance."  
"I had a younger brother, Mek Ai, too. But... well, I'll get to that in a moment... Um... When I was seven, my mother and father's magical experiments unsealed the Demon Dragon Ceres from his ancient, almost- millennium-old seal. He attacked, and a lot of the Noble's district was evacuated, as many tried to fight it... He just about killed me and my brother..."  
"And then, my mother and father came, and they cast a spell that cost them their lives, but it resealed Ceres... for a moment... then something happened, and I came into contact with it, and it possessed me..." Garlyle shook from the painful memories. "But we had no home, and nobody would take care of us, because they all thought we had been the ones who released the demon, so we left for the streets..."  
"We were lucky, a man named Jael took pity on us and took us in, but I didn't want to be helped. I wanted to restore my family's honour without help, though I realised later it was foolery. My brother remained often in his care, because I trusted him."  
"Then I found Ceres' Fang, one day, being stolen away by a group of thieves... I tried to steal it, but got caught, and they threw me off of Faeyr's Wall... I used to have nightmares about it... I nearly drowned, but then somebody saved me..."  
"A boy named Taka, a day older than me, but I ignored him for his good deeds, and instead went to fight the thieves for the prize. I killed them, but other innocents were slaughtered in the battle, there was hundreds upon hundreds of gold pieces in damage..."  
"And when I was going to be caught and punished, I was saved again by Taka... who I took on as an apprentice to learn my magic, because he wanted to understand it too... we became good friends, no, better than that. The best."  
"But... but then... right before all of this dimension-hopping started, he and my brother and Jael were all slaughtered..." Garlyle shook. "I... I don't really know if I want to return to my real time, because nothing good is left for me there, except Kiana..." he added in, silently.  
"Yet you have the memories" Kozo responded. "Consider yourself lucky" and then he spoke no more, sleeping, even snoring lightly.  
Garlyle yawned, and tucked himself in tighter, considering those words. It was true, after all... perhaps he was lucky and just didn't realise it...  
As he fell asleep, he thought to himself. "We come from different worlds, have different tastes, likes, and dislikes, different fighting styles, different social lives..."  
"But yet, we're not that different..." 


	14. The Dreams, Dimension Gate

Chapter 14 – The Dreams  
::The First Dimension Gate Chapter::  
That night, he found himself alone in his dreams, missing his strange protector. He didn't know why, but he knew he wasn't there, holding him, because he was standing on his own.  
Garlyle looked around. There it was, all that blue emptiness... It was expecting something, Garlyle could sense it. But what?  
"Where is this, anyway?" he muttered. "What kind of world is this..."  
"It's empty, unfinished" the voice was familiar. The dream man! But where was he? Garlyle looked around wildly, but couldn't figure out where the voice had come from, there was nothing.  
"Unfinished?" Garlyle asked.  
"It's a lonely place, isn't it, Garlyle? A world where there is nothing but what is created in people's dreams..."  
"D... Dreams?" Garlyle asked.  
"Yes, Dreams" the voice answered.  
Things began to fade into view, and then Garlyle felt himself fading out. He looked down at his own hands, but there was nothing.  
"What...?"  
  
"I'll show you."  
The scene shifted, the blue haze fading away to become a house that Garlyle recognised as being the one Jael lived in.  
There was a young girl in a red beret and red dress, with white pants underneath, holding a brush and painting. She had long, beautiful blonde hair, and a petite, cute face.  
"Ki... Kiana!" Garlyle's face lit up. It had been so long since he had seen Jael's daughter, the beautiful girl...  
He ran towards her, to try and tap her on the shoulder, but found he couldn't touch her. He stepped backwards, simply watching.  
She was painting, skilfully, as she always did. He could hear voices in the another room, that sounded familiar.  
His and Taka's! They were fighting again. Garlyle strained to hear the words, but he couldn't, yet he knew what they were fighting over. Only one thing could make them truly fight like that.  
Kiana set down the paintbrush, and looked towards the doorway, tears in her eyes.  
Garlyle froze. He thought that she didn't mind them fighting over her, or that she enjoyed it, that was how it always seemed to him.  
But she was hurt, and whispered something. "I wish you two wouldn't fight..." she muttered. "I don't like it... I really don't like the fact that my existence is splitting up two best friends..."  
Garlyle's heart was touched, and he gulped. Was that truly what Kiana thought? He'd have to keep that in mind, to apologise to her for all those times they had fought. If he had've only known...  
Hindsight is always 20-20, he reminded himself, though. Then, before his eyes, the image of Kiana, the sounds of the fight, everything faded out. Garlyle missed it, for some reason, it felt as if he had just left something important behind.  
Then another scene faded into view.  
There was a young, white haired man, who vaguely resembled the strange white-haired man that was guiding Garlyle this whole time. It was short and soft, but his skin was almost totally pale, and his body looked very frail, covered over by a white vest. Though he did look a lot like the man who had been 'protecting' Garlyle in his dreams, something told Garlyle it might not be the same man.  
Oddly, all he was doing was sitting on the edge of a grassy cliff, staring out across the sea at the moon.  
"Ceth?"  
The man turned, and Garlyle could see the face. No, it was the man who had been protecting him... Was this who it was?  
"Janine!" Ceth's face lit up, as he ran towards the woman that came into view. A young brown haired woman, no older than the man probably, came running towards him, wearing a rough brown shirt and trousers, as if she were a man. But they were in the wilds...  
"Ceth, is it true? What Maline said?"  
"What exactly did she tell you?" Ceth asked, as he held her close, almost desperately.  
"That tomorrow morning, you... you'll... oh, Ceth! Please, tell me it can't be true!" Janine was crying her heart out, hugging him close as well, crying against his chest.  
"Janine... I... I'm afraid that..."  
"I knew it..." Janine looked up at him. "I don't want to lose you, Ceth... please... I... I love you, Ceth..."  
Then the scene faded away from Garlyle's vision.  
Whoever Ceth was, Garlyle felt as if he had known him for a while... for at least a fair portion of his life...  
Then the scene faded away again, to be replaced with another dream. It felt odd for Garlyle, seeing into people's dreams. He wasn't sure if they were all happening now, right now, or if they were the dreams of people who had already had them...  
The new dream, however, caught Garlyle by surprise. It seemed to be a strange house of some kind. It was totally empty, and Garlyle had to wait a moment before it seemed to take full shape, as somebody stepped in.  
Garlyle jumped backwards a bit. It was Kozo, in something like a uniform with a black shirt and long black pants, and underneath that was a white shirt and tie, something Garlyle thought somehow would be the uniform of a student at a school, though he wasn't sure why. He placed his bag down, and Garlyle noticed the contents of it as he unzipped it were not his blades, but textbooks and papers.  
"What...?"  
"You came home suddenly..."  
There he was, wearing a blue jacket and long blue jeans that covered up most of his body. He was barefoot, with spiky red hair, ruby eyes, and Garlyle had to admit that maybe he could see what Kozo saw in him, for this was no doubt the man that his companion was in love with, Acentine. His voice was very kind and gentle, as if he were much younger than his looks showed.  
"Oh... Yeah, I'm back from school..." Kozo responded, smiling. "I'll graduate in no time, at this rate..." He didn't turn back to face the redhead, instead, he finished unpacking his bags, as Acentine walked up behind him.  
"I'm real proud of you, taking all of this on..." Acentine wrapped his arms around Kozo's shoulder blades from behind, holding him close. Kozo relaxed backwards.  
"I've been with you too long without putting in my half an effort, causing you too much trouble, I have to do something to repay you..." Kozo responded, blushing a tad.  
"You don't have to repay me unless it's what you want, I'm happy the way we are..." the older man kissed Kozo on the ear, before backing away, the scene fading out.  
Garlyle was surprised. What part of that was really what Kozo knew from experience, and what of it was his fancy? He had never mentioned going to school... did he perhaps secretly want to go?  
Garlyle's mind flashed back to the day he had met Kozo, when he had told him his story. He said that things were hard, that's why he had wanted to win that job with the company, right? He really did love Acentine...  
The thoughts made Garlyle flush a bit. So that's what true love was, wanting to make things as easy as possible for each other...  
He remained standing in the darkness again, for a while, before his mind returned to other matters. "Were those... dreams... of the people in this world?"  
"They are the dreams of your closest companions" the voice responded.  
"My closest... but who was that second one?" Garlyle asked. "Who is Ceth?"  
"Someday you'll understand... but for now... there are other things that you must understand..."  
"Like?" Garlyle looked around him, confused.  
"Like coming to understand the origins of this place..."  
Garlyle felt odd. "I think... I understand... Is this place another dimension, too? Does it really exist?"  
"Yes"  
Garlyle awaited any expansion on that response, but gone none. He tried to understand more.  
"Then, is it possible... to actually come here?"  
"Yes. I did."  
The man faded into view. "That's why I'm locked here."  
"You're... locked here! All alone?" Garlyle ran over to the man, who quickly reached down to Garlyle's level, kneeling down. "I... I feel sorry for you, if there is anything I can do..."  
"I would ask nothing more, Garlyle, then to see you doing what you are doing right now" the man smiled at him, holding the boy close.  
"Please, I insist on helping! I... This place is so lonely, how long...?"  
"As long as I can remember..."  
"That being?"  
"Over nine hundred years to this day, I stumbled upon this place..."  
Garlyle held the man closer. "Are you... Ceth?"  
He shook his head, then reconsidered. "Yes and no, I am 'a' Ceth, but not the one whose dreams you saw..."  
Garlyle nodded. "So you became stuck here... Are you the one who's responsible for setting up all these dimensional warps?"  
"Actually, I've been..." Ceth looked away. "I made things happen to do this to you..."  
"What?"  
"I created Rue in your universe to come after you, to force you to escape your home time and dimension, even if it meant hurting you... and then... everything after... Syiolen is just an image I created..."  
"What?" Garlyle backed away, shocked. "You, the one who's been so calming..."  
"I've been leading you from place to place..."  
"Why?"  
"I want to finish this world off"  
"What?"  
"This dimension has nothing in it" Ceth answered quickly. "It only has illusions of reality within it, then those fragments are gone. This place doesn't actually exist on its own... It needs something..."  
"What does it need?" Garlyle asked. He could understand why Ceth didn't like the idea of the world he was stuck in being incomplete.  
"It needs... I don't know, but you're the key. When I saw you, suddenly, it began to click... Everything just began to snap into place. Everything that you do, I watch here... I can see it all..." he smiled. "And everywhere you go, you change things, more than just in that dimension. You, Garlyle, are going to single-handily break every rule that governs these dimensions!"  
"What?" Garlyle backed up, horrified.  
"No, don't get me wrong!" Ceth cried out. "It's a good thing! When these dimensions were made aeons ago, this place was left out. As you complete it, slowly, I can feel the air becoming more solid, you're completing this world AND helping to complete the others!"  
"Then..."  
"When you saw the red moon, that night, Garlyle, it was shining brighter for you than for anybody else in the history of your world" Ceth responded. "Don't you see? Garlyle, you're responsible for this, the crossroads between the dimensions."  
"Really?"  
"If you can continue this, Garlyle..." Ceth smiled. "If you can do what you need to, I believe some day you'll master this place and be able to enter and exit it freely. You will control this place, this dream world..."  
"This Dimension Gate."  
"And then, will I finally be able to return to my home, and return Ceth to his?"  
"Yes."  
Garlyle's face lit up.  
"So, what do I need to do here?"  
"You need to start Andrew off on the path that will lead him to what he needs to discover himself. You are his teacher, you must prepare him for the battle that he will fight and he must win it, Garlyle." Ceth explained.  
"What happens if he doesn't?" Garlyle asked, suddenly nervous.  
Ceth's face turned serious. "If he doesn't Garlyle, he will be killed. Your ancestor will never pass on his blood. You will never be born, Garlyle, and the moment that he is killed, you will cease to exist, and so will your friends... so will your entire Dimension!"  
Garlyle froze. There was a lot at stake! Could the Evil Lord truly do that? Or would the destruction of his home be caused by something else...? He didn't dare risk finding out.  
"I understand" Garlyle smiled. "I promise, Ceth, I'll do my best!"  
And then, suddenly, there was a loud knocking that startled Garlyle from his sleep. 


	15. Figurine, Bloodlines

Chapter 15 – Figurine  
  
::The Fifth Bloodlines Chapter::  
"What's going on?" both Garlyle and Kozo were startled out of their sleep. A few moments later, both Andrew and Lee had awoken, running from their chambers to join the visitors.  
"Lee Wilds! Answer me!"  
"Shoot!" Lee growled. "Guys, hide! It's one of Savarius' soldiers..."  
"We can take..." Kozo began, but Garlyle put a hand in front of his companion's face to stop him.  
"No need to draw extra attention to ourselves" Garlyle responded. "Quickly, follow my lead..."  
Lee turned away. He waited a few moments, until he could no longer sense the two newcomers, before he opened up the door.  
A tall guard with charcoal hair and slightly shaky eyes, looking a bit tired but still very invigorated, stomped in. He was wearing the black cape.  
"What brings you here, sir Jaitso?"  
Jaitso spun on his foot, glowering down at the man. He was easily six and a half feet tall, almost touching the roof, and looked really imposing. "Spare me the pleasantries for now, Lee. The Lord knows that you were the only one out of the commoners who tried to speak to the demons, so where are they?"  
Lee started, jumping backwards. "Are you accusing me of housing criminals against the Lord's will? Frankly, Jaitso, I'm insulted that you'd think..."  
"Where else would two demons flee within the limits of the city?" Jaitso growled down.  
"Who said they're even still within the limits of the city!" Lee growled back. "There's miles of land outside of the city that we don't even have a clue about, you know that! They're probably long gone, if you ask me!"  
"I'm asking you all right, but I know that you're lying to me" Jaitso growled. He then walked towards where Garlyle and Kozo had been standing.  
"I can still... sense the demons..."  
For a moment, he had sworn he had heard a footstep at his side, but realised shortly after that it was actually Lee, walking up beside him.  
"This is foolry. You're invading my home without reason, Jaitso. I've never known you to do such a thing before Savarius..."  
"Are you defying the Lord?" Jaitso growled.  
"Of course not. Long Live Savarius..." Lee proclaimed sharply in response, but his son could hear the whisper of a mutter under his breath.  
"...trapped under a heavy rock..."  
Andrew seemed to back away at this, though he wasn't sure why. Perhaps he was afraid that the man had heard the comment...  
But Jaitso apparently hadn't. He stepped back towards the door, but turned to face Lee one last time.  
"Lee, if I find out that you're lying to me..."  
"Of course I'm not, Jaitso. I thought you always trusted my word."  
Jaitso's face twitched, almost cruelly, before he turned and walked off. Lee shut the door.  
"Where did they go?" Lee asked, after it was obvious they were safe.  
The air rippled, and Garlyle and Kozo reappeared almost exactly where they had been, though Garlyle had stepped back a bit.  
"So that's magic..." Kozo smiled. "It helps, I suppose..."  
"It was risky though..." Garlyle muttered.  
"I still say I could have taken him..." Kozo muttered.  
*****  
After that ordeal, deciding that they wouldn't be able to return to sleep that night, Lee took out a couple loaves of bread. Kozo seemed both slightly disappointed at the meagre amount, but he also looked pleased with the amount that was there.  
As they ate, Garlyle took barely, saving almost an entire loaf for Kozo to eat. He had eaten more recently than his companion had, after all, and supposedly people needed the most food as they were in their teenage years.  
As Kozo watched, he saw a slightly glazed over look appear in Garlyle's eyes, but decided not to inquire. He was obviously not there at the moment, instead, focused on something else.  
"Hey, Ceres..." Garlyle spoke.  
"Yeah?"  
"What can you tell me... About Ceth?"  
"Ceth who?"  
"...Didn't think so" Garlyle muttered, shaking his head and snapping out of his trance-like state.  
"Didn't think what?" Andrew asked.  
"N... Nothing" Garlyle responded quickly. "Just thinking like a fool, I suppose"  
Kozo looked at Garlyle, perhaps suspecting the truth, but not saying anything. In the meantime, Garlyle tried to focus again, still barely eating.  
"Tell me what you know about Andrew," Garlyle commanded the inner demon inside of him. He had slept that entire time.  
"He's a perfectly nice boy, quite fine..."  
"I meant when he fought..."  
"That's right! There's something missing, and he apparently received it from his tutor..."  
"What?"  
"I... I don't know if I can remember, but, I think I know..."  
"Well?"  
"The figurine in which I was sealed long ago, Garlyle, should be held somewhere around here. Maybe it'll help me understand."  
"Why would it...?"  
"Please, Garlyle..."  
"Alright" Garlyle smiled. After they finished, he turned to Kozo.  
"You first" Garlyle smirked.  
"Me first for what?" Kozo asked, confused.  
"You're first to train him."  
His eyes slid over to mine, nervously. "This wasn't part of the deal!"  
I laughed. "Now it is" I grinned.  
He sighed, but understood. "No arms?"  
"No, you both have two arms, use them" I responded, jokingly. I was feigning a perfectly happy, good mood, as if there was no care on my mind, though in truth I was curious about many things.  
A couple minutes later, after explaining the situation to the boy, Kozo and Andrew headed into the back chambers to practice. I grabbed Lee's arm to stop him.  
"Lee..."  
"Yeah?"  
"Do you have..." I tried to remember what I was looking for. "... do you, by chance, have a figurine of a small dragon...?"  
Lee gulped. "Why?"  
"I need to see it..."  
"A... Alright..." Lee led me towards a neglected corner of the house, and pushed away some boxes. There was a trap door underneath.  
We headed downwards, and pushed a few more boxes out of the way underground. Slowly, we made our way towards the corner of the basement.  
There it was, about the size of my head. I almost wanted to back off, and probably would have, if I hadn't recognised this power.  
It wasn't quite as strong as the Ceres that was inside of me now, the one that had grown over the two years he had been with me...  
"Leave me be" I responded.  
He seemed eerie. "Do you know what that is?"  
"Of course I know!" I snapped back, urgently. I couldn't let him know, and I suspected that this Ceres wouldn't have any qualms about telling him my secret... "Leave!"  
"Alright" Lee jumped back, walking away. Garlyle heard the trap door shut.  
He smiled, seeing that Lee had gone. Slowly, he turned back towards the statue, and looked hard at it.  
"Who are you who dares to stare at me so?"  
Garlyle was slightly surprised by the voice, it had been a long time since he had heard the demon this darkly before. Again, he was tempted to turn tail and run, but...  
He lifted up a single finger and carefully placed it upon the statue's tail.  
It twitched, snaking away from it, and it came to life. The small figurine bit at Garlyle's finger, but he pulled it away first.  
The boy smirked.  
Then, he felt the change...  
There were things moving the boxes, invisible things...  
Garlyle felt the wood under his feet shake, and he suddenly remembered. He backed away, just in time.  
The wood underneath him twisted in weird shapes, as if something had moved through it, but a moment later it was back to normal.  
"Alright, you two" Garlyle smiled. "Stop playing."  
"Who's playing?" a voice hissed from the ceiling. Garlyle looked up.  
A dragon's face was staring at him from the rafters of the chamber. The boy smirked, putting his hands on his hips.  
"Why, you, of course," his grin widened. "Kuni..."  
"How do you know our names?" another face moved beside that of the other dragon.  
"Koku, how could I not know?" the brown-haired child smirked.  
"You intruder, messing with what you do not deserve!"  
Then they were gone. Garlyle jumped into the air, and they passed below him. As he landed, though, he turned and jumped backwards again. They both missed him once again.  
He saw them moving, because the boxes were shaking whenever they passed. He knew that if they caught him, that he would be swallowed into the wood, like some other intruders had... it was an unusual way to die, indeed...  
Garlyle jumped back once again. "Boys, you can stop attacking now!" he cried, as they both crossed under his feet once again. He nimbly dodged them, used to their attacks. "You're in the company of one who understands!"  
"Why should we listen?"  
Garlyle jumped away from one. Wait, one? One? Garlyle's eyes opened, surprised. Had they been more experienced back this time, when they were used to being threatened? They were smarter here!  
The other just barely caught the edge of Garlyle's foot, throwing it off balance as leather was torn off the bottom of his shoe. He stumbled, suddenly unbalanced, and fell.  
"Ceres, do something!" he screamed, mentally.  
He felt the dragon take over his mouth. "Stop, now, you blithering idiots!"  
The two froze, perfectly in a cross pointed at Garlyle's heart, only a moment away from swallowing him whole.  
Garlyle pushed himself up.  
"Who is this that dares to speak with my voice?" the Ceres of the statue growled.  
"It's me, or rather, it is you. It is a long story, some day you will understand" Garlyle spoke, or rather, the dragon inside of him did.  
"What should we do?" the two wood dragons asked.  
"Kuni... Koku... Back off... I want to speak to this man who claims to be me."  
"Alright" the demons slithered away. They curled up around the base of the figurine.  
"So," Garlyle returned to his own voice. "It's been a while since I've seen you."  
"Have we met?" the statue-Ceres asked.  
"Not yet" Garlyle grinned. "It's a long story... I'll let you take over..."  
"Me?"  
"Hello, my younger self"  
Suddenly, they both seemed to understand.  
"Put your hands on the statue, Garlyle, I need to... tap into something..."  
Garlyle followed his command.  
Suddenly, an image flashed through his mind. He saw Ceth, for a split second, and than...  
And than... 


	16. Spirit Connection, Shaman King

Chapter 16 – Spirit Connection  
  
::The First Shaman King Chapter::  
When Garlyle awoke again, he was suddenly aware of a strange feeling, of being completely alone.  
He wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was the light rushing of a nearby water source, or the fact that everything was eerily quiet aside from that.  
No, it wasn't that.  
Before he had even put his finger on it, he called out mentally.  
"Ceres?" he asked himself, trying to contact the demon.  
There was a long pause.  
And there was no response.  
"Ceres? Where are you?"  
Still, no response.  
"Great, I've lost him..." Garlyle sat up, looking around.  
He was at a hot springs, lying among stones which were pounding into his back, making him undeniably uncomfortable. He sat up to relieve some of the pressure.  
It was a natural springs, that much he was certain of, though there was a dragon-shaped fountain in the centre, built out of solid marble. As he looked around, seeing the wooden fences around him, he swore his eyes caught something in the wood.  
Then it was gone.  
"I have a feeling I already know where I am... kinda..." Garlyle muttered. "Kuni! Koku!" calling the two by name was one way to get their attention normally, but surprisingly, they didn't come.  
"Hmm..." Garlyle sighed. He looked around more, as he stood up, brushing his shorts and bruised legs clear of all the dirt on them.  
"Hello? Hello?" Garlyle called out.  
Not getting an answer, he walked over to two screen doors and slid one to his side, stepping inside of a small changing area. It was barren.  
"Hello?" he called again, stepping further inside, sliding open another door, entering a long hallway with the odd scent of bamboo. Of course, everything was made out of the soft wood here, it seemed.  
"There's nobody here..." he muttered, looking around the hallway, picking another random door, and sliding it open.  
He became aware suddenly of a strange magical force in the air around him, floating about the room, and it freaked him out. The room was totally bare...  
So then why the energy?  
Garlyle let one hand fall to his side, palm down, casting a spell under his breath, using the back of his hand to create strokes in the air.  
"Symbols, Blur Illusion!"  
As he finished, making one final sweep with his hand, the air in the room seemed to ripple.  
Faintly, watching him from all corners of the room, were strange shapes that floated about, outlined in a strange misty colour that Garlyle could see.  
It was familiar, just like...  
"Gh... Ghosts?" he gulped.  
One of them, a strange old man with a wrinkly face and a long moustache, floated over to stare at him with creepy eyes.  
Garlyle let out a gulp, turned on his heel, kicked off the ground, and ran.  
"GAAAH!"  
And now that he was aware of the presence of the phantoms, he saw that they were everywhere in the springs. Blindly, he tore through doors, not noticing the contents. At one point he had sworn he had run through a kitchen, but he hadn't paid any attention.  
Then suddenly he was outside, under the moonlight, and he was aware of a phantasmal energy unlike anything inside of the creepy house.  
Two warriors were fighting, too far away on a long field for Garlyle to see who they were, though they didn't look like they would be too tall. Aside from that, he couldn't tell anything.  
Except for their weapons. In the hands of one of the figures was something so minuscule Garlyle swore there wasn't anything there, but there was a flaming red energy flowing around it like flames from a fire.  
And the other had an absolutely huge feather upon his back that glowed with a dark purple energy that looked almost familiar...  
... Was it the same energy that Kozo had held? No way...  
Then the two stopped from their standstill, diving at each other.  
He was amazed by what he saw. The two figures were using pure energy to attack each other, making the auras move and shift as they commanded, reacting to their wishes.  
The one with the small dagger-like object swung it, and a horizontal blade of energy whipped across the firm grass at high speeds, only to be dodged as the other kicked off the ground, shooting into the air.  
Garlyle swore that the strange purple energy was forming wings... no, it was forming wings. Those things, which Garlyle were certain were not at all physically there, were holding him up!  
The other, almost as if having expected this, had kicked off the ground, and suddenly everything became clear.  
As if having moved closer hadn't told him anything, he suddenly realised who was fighting.  
It was him and Taka!  
He saw the strange clothes he was in: a tight red silk wrap around his chest and long black pants, and nothing else. His brown hair was much longer, and it wasn't kept in a bandanna anymore, but instead in a ponytail that Garlyle had to admit was quite interesting.  
And Taka, apparently his rival, was dressed pretty much the same, except his sash was crimson, and he had no ponytail, instead, his purple hair was all held by goggles that wrapped around the scalp, forcing all the hair upwards.  
"What the...?" Garlyle muttered, watching the next move in the fight.  
As the new-Garlyle reached the highest point of his leap, suddenly the red energy around him exploded, taking the form of a roaring dragon, and he was diving at Taka.  
Taka grabbed the feather from behind him and swept it as hard as he could, and Garlyle felt the winds suddenly pick up, pushing in a huge gust away from it. It was a good thing he had been far away, otherwise he would have gone flying.  
Yet this had only stopped the silk-clad Garlyle momentarily, as he came at him again. Instead of attacking head first however, the boy turned around, sweeping out the claw in front of him.  
Garlyle saw the long dragon's tail spin about, and as the strange energy hit Taka, the boy went flying.  
Suddenly, the energy from his feather flickered out, as he went flying, crashing into the grass.  
There was a couple more moments, than the dragon-Garlyle-person seemed to dispel his own power, the dragon disappearing right back into the fang.  
Garlyle ran towards him, gulping, not sure what to expect.  
They didn't notice him at first. Instead, somebody else did.  
"Garlyle!"  
He turned, and smiled. There, in a red beret and a long silver blouse and skirt was Kiana, looking quite nice as she was, running from the house he had just come out of.  
Then she froze.  
"Wait, there are two..." she pointed between the two, finally making the two sparring boys take note.  
"Umm..." Garlyle gulped.  
"WHAT'S GOING ON?" she cried.  
"Gods above..." the new-Garlyle exclaimed, walking over to join his dimension-travelling self. "What the hell?"  
"I'm not sure..." Taka muttered, standing on his other side.  
"Gaah..." Garlyle sighed. "Alright, if I tell you something really weird, will you promise not to freak out and kill me?"  
"Depends how weird" Garlyle spoke it, and the traveller version knew that it was definitely him.  
*****  
He told them, rather quickly, and had made them understand fairly fast.  
And in the process, he had learned a lot.  
Wherever he was now, there were people called 'Shamans' who could transform the power of the spirits into actual physical power. Garlyle and Taka were training against each other before something called the 'Shaman Fight'.  
When it finally came up again, Garlyle learned what it was. Shaman Fight, apparently, was a huge competition held only every 500 years to determine who became the shaman who would channel the 'Great Spirit', or as some called him, God. It seemed quite... odd... to Garlyle, but he didn't really care.  
"You two... but if only one person can..."  
"Yeah, at some point we'll have to fight" Taka had responded. "But that doesn't matter."  
Garlyle caught the two's glance towards Kiana, who was watching the two intently, almost dreamily, seeming to have forgotten there was a new Garlyle there. But when she did look at him, she had that same crazy look on her face...  
He turned to face his alternate self. "Umm..."  
"Yeah?"  
"You've got more riding on this tournament than the Great Spirit, don't you?"  
  
"How could anything more ride on..."  
"Kiana?"  
  
"You know?" the shaman-Garlyle was surprised, and Garlyle knew he had got it.  
"Long story" he responded, before they turned back to discussion.  
Then Kiana asked him something. "Why are you here, anyway?"  
"I... I honestly don't know" Garlyle muttered, looking around, inspecting the three and the area. "I don't think it was my fault I'm here, but I have the feeling there's something I'm supposed to find here."  
"Well, unless you know what you're trying to find..." the Shaman- Garlyle shrugged. "Shaman Fight begins in only a week, you know, and we're not about to miss it. Sorry."  
"Then I'll come along" Garlyle smiled. "Somehow, no matter where I've travelled, sticking around with myself and my family has usually led to go things..."  
"...Are they still alive, back in your world?"  
Garlyle was startled by the question that the Shaman-Garlyle asked.  
"What?"  
"My parents died after my younger brother was born... a Shaman of a rival clan named Kinomi killed him when he was only four... I couldn't protect him, then, and... I barely saved myself..." he sighed, losing himself in memories.  
Garlyle felt sorry for the boy. "I know... They're not alive in my world either... My parents were killed by a demon... my brother... my friends... I lost them to the attack of a dangerous mercenary..."  
"A demon?" the Shaman perked up, not seeming to catch the rest.  
"Yes, a demon dragon, to be more precise" Garlyle grinned.  
"Funny, that's the nickname Ceth has received..." the Shaman-Garlyle smiled.  
"What? Ceth?" Garlyle's eyes opened wide. "You... You know him?"  
"Sure! Come on out, Ceth!" he held the fang over his head, dramatically.  
The red light swooped off of it again, before forming into a man wearing tattered rags, but had a fang on a chain wrapped around his neck that was identical to the one the boy was holding up, and he obviously looked as though he would be quite ferocious.  
He looked softly down at Garlyle, waved a hello, and smiled. "Hey!"  
Garlyle blinked. What? "This is Ceth?"  
"Yeah. Problem?"  
"Um... But then... With what you told me, a shaman like yourself can only work with one ghost for maximum potential, right?"  
"Yes."  
"But, then, the dragon...?"  
Ceth's form shimmered, and then it became a dragon so immense it nearly filled the room with its spiritual energy. Garlyle felt oddly crushed.  
"Umm... alright, I don't doubt it" Garlyle responded. Then something clued in.  
"Wait... umm... Garlyle..." he asked his other self, "You've never heard the name 'Ceres', have you?"  
"Oh, that's the name of the dragon form" Garlyle responded. "Why?"  
Suddenly, it all clued in!  
Ceres was Ceth. Ceth is Ceres!  
Every piece of the puzzle was making sense now, everything clicking in, and Garlyle couldn't help but wonder if he would confuse Ceres when he got the dragon back...  
If he got the dragon back...  
But what was it he needed to get back, anyway? Gods only knew!  
The answer probably should have been obvious to him, but for now, he knew that he had a job to do. To help his other self however he could.  
He hadn't been sent here just for that. That kind of thing just didn't happen! 


End file.
